Last movie you watched......

Three classic movies mentioned here -- all great, in different ways.

As a 2001 fan/nerd, let me just say this about "convincing" other people to watch and/or enjoy it.

Had a friend who wanted to know what all the accolades are about. I popped in the VHS tape (this was a few years ago). The first portion of the film, where the man apes beat on each other with bones, ends. My friend asks me, "What is any of that supposed to mean?" I answered, "If you have trouble figuring that out, let's just stop the movie right now."

"Daisy, daisy, give me your answer, do/I'm just crazy, allll forrrr the looooooove offff youuuuuu ...."

 

In the extras, the director explained that they did the toasting ceremony in one shoot. I thought it was claustrophobic, but in a good way. Excellent scene. Poignant. Funny. It felt ... real.

And Debra Winger looks hot for being in her 50s.

 

hey, don't feel bad - I just watched it and the rest of the series for the first time several months ago. cool to be able to watch all three of em right after one another.

 

I could see someone have a violent reaction to Rachel Getting Married. The film is so intimate that it's kinda like meeting a person, or a family, and deciding whether you like them or not based on seeing every one of their skeletons.

I've known a few Kyms in my life. They're the kind of people you'd like to cross the street to avoid. But you don't, and you indulge them, wishing, the whole time, you'd just crossed the damn street.

In my experience the Kyms of the world are fully aware of the trainwreckdom, read the regret on your face, and act out even more, as if it's expected of them.

 

That's Sofia Coppola (with a bigger than she'll admit assist from Spike Jonze).

Now that Jonze and Coppola aren't together or married, the film community is interested to see if she really can write and direct a film on her own. She certainly wrote Lost In Translation; it's debateable how much of it she directed, with her brother working second unit (a good portion of that movie is second unit) her then-husband around the set, and Acord as the DOP.

 

Just finished watching "Battle for Algiers" an Italian (subtitled) film made about the insurgency in Algiers (surprise) against the French. I was piqued when I heard the Pentagon showed in DC to give officers an idea of what they faced in Iraq. I highly recommend it if you're interested in that sort of thing, it was made in the 60s, but holds up quite well. Very reminiscent of Paul Greengrass's stuff with a pseudo-documentary feel.

 

I got The Wrestler from Netflix the other day (damn stuff comes out on DVD quick) and loved it. Amazing work.

 

The Pentagon indeed did that. It is one of the great war films in history, sadly overlooked.

 

Saw "State Of Play" on Friday night and obviously appreciated the periphery story line about the newspaper industry more than somebody who is not or never has been in the biz would have.

Russell Crowe did a stand-up job as Helen Mirren was impressive as the hard-nosed editor and I couldn't believe how hot Robin Wright Penn looked as Ben Affleck's wife. Didn't realize it was here until the closing credits.

Definitely a movie worth seeing again.

 

Rewatched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" on HBO. I've seen it enough times that the story arc doesn't grab me -- I found myself getting impatient at times -- but yet I still laughed a lot. There are weak points, but there are a lot of fun, likable, human characters. It came off as more real/genuine to me than a lot of the movies involving Segel/Hill/etc., while still being zany enough to have plenty of situational and stream-of-consciousness laughs.

 

That's in my top 20 list of movies to see. Everytime I look for it, I can't find it.

 

I just watched 'Cube' for the first time since it came out.
I was once again struck by what an interesting idea it was and by how laughably bad most of the acting is.