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

Started by GEWALTMONOPOL, December 29, 2009, 06:31:05 PM

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monster ripper

Quote from: Balor/SS1535 on May 10, 2022, 01:55:29 AM
Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure

They talk in the movie about the tapes they recorded being spread across the United States during the 1980s, so I was wondering whether anyone here encountered them in circulation?

Yeah, I used to have some.  Tape trading in the '80s wasn't just about sound, a lot of weird shit made the rounds, like the "red/tube bar" tapes, and recordings of famous people loosing there shit and swearing that got edited out of radio shows etc.  (similar to what Negativland used some on "the letter u and the numeral 2") or even just weird local radio adds, pretty much anything unusual would be thrown on a mix tape and sent off. 

Balor/SS1535

Quote from: monster ripper on May 10, 2022, 04:51:41 PM
Quote from: Balor/SS1535 on May 10, 2022, 01:55:29 AM
Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure

They talk in the movie about the tapes they recorded being spread across the United States during the 1980s, so I was wondering whether anyone here encountered them in circulation?

Yeah, I used to have some.  Tape trading in the '80s wasn't just about sound, a lot of weird shit made the rounds, like the "red/tube bar" tapes, and recordings of famous people loosing there shit and swearing that got edited out of radio shows etc.  (similar to what Negativland used some on "the letter u and the numeral 2") or even just weird local radio adds, pretty much anything unusual would be thrown on a mix tape and sent off. 

Cool!  If you don't mind me asking, what is the general area you are located in?  The movie only talked about tape trading in the US, but I am wondering whether any of their tapes made it to other countries.

monster ripper

Cool!  If you don't mind me asking, what is the general area you are located in?  The movie only talked about tape trading in the US, but I am wondering whether any of their tapes made it to other countries.
[/quote]

I'm in the US, but it wouldn't surprise me if they made it to other countries as well

Balor/SS1535

Quote from: monster ripper on May 15, 2022, 04:12:16 PM
Cool!  If you don't mind me asking, what is the general area you are located in?  The movie only talked about tape trading in the US, but I am wondering whether any of their tapes made it to other countries.

I'm in the US, but it wouldn't surprise me if they made it to other countries as well
[/quote]

I certainly hope that they did!

Fistfuck Masonanie

Quick heads up that Tetsuo: The Iron Man is up on Shudder as well as Body Hammer.

FallOfNature

Amazonia : The Catherine Miles Story

Late entry into the Italian cannibal genre. Mostly a boring drama, with a few scenes that are staple to the genre, gruesome killings and such. Not particularly worth a second watch.

Snowtown
Third watch for me. Can still remember people leaving the cinema when I first saw this over a decade ago. The bleakness and hopelessness of everything in this film is fantastic, director nailed the borderline poverty and dull living of low level income Australian's in the 90's perfectly. The infamous scenes are done really well and realistically too. I sampled this movie heavily some years ago for a split that never happened.

absurdexposition

Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

AdamLehrerImageMaker

Gaspar Nóe's 'Vortex' is an extraordinary masterpiece. I wrote about it here: https://compactmag.com/article/the-vindication-of-gaspar-noe

Cronenberg's 'Crimes of the Future' is an intriguing return to form, but unsure if it's a classic yet. I wrote about it here: https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/p/10-observations-on-crimes-of-the?s=w

ConcreteMascara

Started a new job in May and I can no longer visit SI on my work computer, let alone post about movies. Now when I get home the last thing I feel like doing most nights is spending time typing more shit. But today I have the time and willingness so here's a recap of the last 4 months of viewing...

Contamination - [dir. Luigi Cozzi, 1980] - My second viewing... I guess I remembered the gore and action that bookends the film and forgot the long and mostly boring mid section. While there are some fun effects I struggled to pay attention. Casting Louise Marleau as the lead female does not light my fire and the overall chemistry between the leads is nearly non-existent. This is worth a watch but probably not two.

The Mummy - [dir. Stephen Sommers, 1999] - My family and I loved this movie when I was growing up. I must have seen it at least 15 times on VHS. Coming back to it a decade at least after my last watch it's extremely enjoyable. The definition of a romp. Yeah it helped usher in the overuse of CGI and gore-less action but it's soo damn fun in a corny, old Hollywood way. If you didn't grow up with it it'd probably fall flat but I'd take this over bad horror any day.

Mulholland Drive - [dir. David Lynch, 2001] - 4K screening at the theatre with Rebekah Del Rio doing a live performance before the show, this was a great night out. My wife's favorite Lynch film and one I admire strongly. The performances are so good and there's a lot of laugh out loud humor too. I was told by another Lynch fan that when this movie originally came out he asked theaters to play the audio at some heightened volume. Well that definitely seemed to be honored at my screening because this ear-splitting at parts. As far as time-loop nightmares go I still prefer "Lost Highway", but I'll get to that in a minute.

The Northman - [dir. Robert Eggers, 2022] - Really enjoyable but my least favorite Robert Eggers movie so far. It has a lot of visual flair, the budget is clearly on display and there are more personal, idiosyncratic flourishes that make it feel like an Eggers film, but the "epic" scope takes away some of the intimacy and interest for me. It reminded me of Valhalla Rising and Revenant but I didn't like it as much as either of those films. I think a second viewing will improve my opinion. That being said, it's in no way bad, just not the revelation I was hoping for. I will say it's bullshit we never see Alexander Skarsgård's dick though. Missed opportunity.

Ex Machina - [dir. Alex Garland, 2015] - Second viewing. This is a compact and perfect little sci-fi story. I'm willing to call it faultless.

Dune - [dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2021] - A little bit of the brain-melting effect is lost when watched at home compared to my theater viewing, but otherwise I enjoyed this just as much on second viewing as I did on the first. A technical note, I watched the 4K blu ray and apparently there's this awesome thing that happens with most 4k players where the movie freezes and stops around 1hr 41min mark because of a layer change on discs of a certain size. This forces you to restart the player, restart the movie, skip to the next scene and then rewind from there. Glad they've got this consumer technology shit all figured out...................

Men - [dir. Alex Garland, 2022] - Absolutely loved this. If you watch this and all you get out of the film is "all men are the same" or "all men are bad", you're a fucking idiot. It seems most people who reviewed this are fucking idiots. Also, one of the most legitimately haunting and effective horror scores I've heard in ages.

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh - [dir. Sergio Martino, 1971] - Peak Fenech and Martino. A wonderfully twisty whodunnit which has received more noise tributes than most giallo or horror. The new(ish) Severin release looks great!

The Evil Dead - [dir. Sam Raimi, 1981] - still my favorite Evil Dead movie by a mile. it's absolutely cuckoo-bananas without getting too dumb or too silly. And the stop motion putrefaction is so awesome. My wife's first viewing, about a million references and homages finally made sense to her.

Death Walks at Midnight - [dir. Luciano Ercoli, 1972] - a fun and labyrinthian giallo that's impossible to predict. could've used a bit more murder but Nieves Navarro's performance is so much fun she manages to carry things through the dull spots. I probably liked this a little less than the sister film Death Walks on High Heels but it's a solid romp regardless.

Lost Highway - [dir. David Lynch, 1997] - went to see the new 4K transfer in the theater on Saturday and it was easily the best looking I've ever seen the film. It may not be Lynch's best but I'm starting to think Lost Highway is my favorite, or at least favorite to watch. It's the most '90s take on LA noir, there's so much sex, angry saxophone, big American cars, seedy crime guys, and violence. Bill Pullman looks a lot like late 90s early 00s Trent Reznor when he's walking through dark hallways. Robert Loggia cracks me the fuck up. And the big fat titties swing so free, so often. It is the infinitely less classy version of Mullholland Drive, but all the more fun for it. So happy to see it in theaters for the first time in my life.

Phenomena - [dir. Dario Argento, 1985] - New 4K transfer by Synapse looks amazing. I've reviewed this too many times here but needless to say it's become a real favorite of mine in the Argento oeuvre.

And that's all for now...
[death|trigger|impulse]

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Atrophist

Was heavily disappointed by the latest Cronenberg. Multiple subplots left unexplored, no real ending, a humdrum sense of futility and pointlessness all over the proceedings. Apparently the first draft of the script was from 1997, unsurprising since this is basically the lesser cousin of eXistenZ and Crash. Don't get me started on Mortensen's ninja costume. A few good ideas and impressive scenes, sure (especially giggled at the consent-independent trepanerinsritualen), and a great score by Shore as always. But that's about it. Being a huge fan I'll give this another go at some point, but right now for me it's at the very bottom of his filmography, along with Dangerous Method.

Also watched the great Taiwanese horror film The Sadness. Extremely impressive for a debut film. Especially for the zombie genre, which is a bit, eh, done to death these days. Ending was a bit meh, however.

MHK

Dang, sad to hear that about Crimes of the Future. I haven't liked Cronenberg's films from this millennium much and was hoping it'd be a return to form, so to say. I'll try and see it sometime soon in any case.

Just watched Doris Wishman's Indecent Desires. So weird it was almost surreal, but should've been much more sleazy and nasty.

absurdexposition

Quote from: MHK on July 10, 2022, 06:49:35 PM
Dang, sad to hear that about Crimes of the Future. I haven't liked Cronenberg's films from this millennium much and was hoping it'd be a return to form, so to say.

It is. I loved it. I've seen it twice at the theatre and would go back again. Not only is horny Cronenberg back, but ideas Cronenberg is back. It traces the line from eXistenZ and Crash through to Dead Ringers and all the way back to his original Crimes of the Future. Inverse to Atrophist, it's actually near the top of the Cronenberg pile for me.
Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

NerveGas

I agree. Great movie. Seems like a lot of people expected body horror. With this one you get a lot of body, but not so much horror. I would agree in many ways it's a return to form, but by no means a rehash of ideas or some nostalgia ploy. I have a ton of thoughts about this film, but will keep it brief. Went into it with no knowledge of the plot, so perhaps that shaped my opinion a bit, but I felt like it went in a very unexpected direction much to my personal benefit.
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aububs

i thought it was really boring

haven't really liked a cronenberg film in about 25 years

Atrophist

I've no desire or intention to start an argument over this (it's just movie), but imho as an artist you can't really return to form, certainly not the form you were in 25+ years ago. Nor is it necessary in Cronenberg's case as he's never really stopped maturing, developing, and again imho, improving as an artist. I get that pushing 80 he'd wish to revisit his old haunts for a nostalgia trip (and no, "surgery as sex" is not a major innovation over, say, "car crashes as sex"). Still, I hope his next film(s) will break new ground again.

I actually found the plotline about digesting plastic much more interesting. But even that was clumsily handled. I mean for a regular person, swallowing a piece of plastic is not a great idea, but it won't cause you to immediately start vomiting blue slime and then die. Or were those purple bars the "industrial waste" the character referred to at some point? Who knows.

But anyway, I'm glad others enjoyed it more than I did. And as a big fan, I'd still prefer a below-average Cronenberg film over almost anything else. I certainly hope he still has a few films in him and am looking forward to Shrouds.