Schoolio's Movie Corner

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

He's wrong, because the movie isn't going to play well in those markets regardless of running time. There are enough people out there that won't even bother watching a movie with subtitles, so why not market the film toward the type of people that actually want to see it?

[KungFuJoe]

He's wrong, because the movie isn't going to play well in those markets regardless of running time. There are enough people out there that won't even bother watching a movie with subtitles, so why not market the film toward the type of people that actually want to see it?

Exactly! The problem with this dumb ass is he is quick to cut asian films, thinking they will play better to a western audience, because he is too cheap to actually market the films properly. There is a built in audience that already wants to see these films, but you lose that audience once they know you're going to fuck with the cut. They will go ahead and import the blu ray instead. People that weren't interested to begin with aren't suddenly going to see it because you've cut down the running time. Release it as it was meant to be seen and market the fucking thing properly or don't purchase the distribution rights.

[amyzzz]

Where's the petition to sign?

[schoolofruckus]

Exactly! The problem with this dumb ass is he is quick to cut asian films, thinking they will play better to a western audience, because he is too cheap to actually market the films properly. There is a built in audience that already wants to see these films, but you lose that audience once they know you're going to fuck with the cut. They will go ahead and import the blu ray instead. People that weren't interested to begin with aren't suddenly going to see it because you've cut down the running time. Release it as it was meant to be seen and market the fucking thing properly or don't purchase the distribution rights.

Pretty much. I was totally interested in seeing this film (though I have yet to catch up with Bong's previous films), but there's no way I'm wasting time to see the version that Harvey thinks will kill in Des Moines.

[xanman86]

I'm impressed with her choices:

http://www.criterion.com/explore/202...jesus-s-top-10


What I saw in July...

The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola - 83
Super 8 - J.J. Abrums - 95
Much Ado About Nothing - Joss Whedon - 90
Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman -100
Spring Breakers - Harmony Korine - 100
Pacific Rim - Guillermo Del Toro - 88
The Wolverine - James Mangold - 68
Cannibal! The Musical - Trey Parker - 98

[lehorne]

Seen a couple good films lately. 'A Summer in Genoa' with the actor who played Marc Darsy in Bridgette Jones had you on edge the entire time. Was that established by, and carried through the entire film, the death of their Mother in the first scene? The camera angles and narrow Italian side streets I'm sure added to the paranoia of impending tragedy. I wanted to fast forward through a few parts because of how emotionally affecting they were. Phew, glad that's over.

Also, 'Byzantium' is a quality vampire film in an era of terrible ones.

[flaminggodlikecreature]

Movies I've seen recently (Past 2 Months) and Ratings:
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore: B+
Sci Fi Channel Dune Mini Series: A+
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: A-
How to Train Your Dragon: A
Jack Reacher: B
Evil Dead (Remake): B-
House of the Devil: B
Haywire: B-
British Series Sherlock Holmes: A+
Session 9: A+
The Inn Keepers: B-
Last of the Mohicans: A
Contagion: B
Traffic: A
World War Z: B
Superman 2: A+
District 9: A+
This is the end: A+
Check out my movie & Concert blog page here:

http://wildfiresreviews.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys!

[KungFuJoe]

Mud. Loved it. Best film of the year so far for me.

[cutterbutter]

Absolutely dying to see it. Haven't been so captivated by something so quickly in a long long time.

[FEELS]

Same.

[schoolofruckus]

Mud was indeed excellent. I was a lot more mixed on Take Shelter than most people - quite frankly, I preferred Nicols' earlier film Shotgun Stories - but Mud was nearly flawless.


Guys, the widespread praise for The Act of Killing is entirely warranted. It's a phenomenal film that has only grown in my head since I saw it on Monday night. I'd love to talk more, but it's better to walk in cold and do your research after it's over.

[TomServo]

Room 237, a documentary about the theories about the meaning and symbols in The Shining, was the equivalent of watching a movie made my Radiohead wackos trying to relate the color of Thom's pants to the quality of the band's setlists.

Room 237 is terrific. It definitely drags at points, but the section about the Moon landing is 100% worth the price of admission. I've listened to the wacko Moon landing/Kubrick guys before... and they put up a pretty good argument. If you look the guy up on the internet, you'll see his breakdowns of the technology used to create the space shots in 2001 and the Moon landing video. It's some compelling stuff, and having grown up in the age of terrible special effects (and working in sfx for a long time) I can see it.

Throw in some of the imagery they used surrounding the kid, I could see the whole "Kubrick faked the moon landing" angle.

[TallGuyCM]

I was a lot more mixed on Take Shelter than most people

Yeah, same here. I can't even really pinpoint what it was that I didn't like about it...it was just a weird film that kind of kept the viewer at arm's length without ever really providing a satisfying resolution.

[bmack86]

Just watched Mud with the folks and it was spectacular. Tye Sheridan is shaping up to be one hell of a young actor, and the movie was FUN. I was legitimately surprised that it was so traditionally entertaining given the folks who praised it on here (I fully expected my dad to hate it, as he has pretty much every Gabe film I've ever shown him) but he enjoyed it quite a bit. I was super impressed and may just have to watch it again while we still have it on our 2-day rental. And I am definitely listening to Beach Boys records now.

[schoolofruckus]

I like to imagine you watching it with your dad and mum, petrified that someone is about to get raped any second now. If only all adventure / coming-of-age stories could be executed that well, I wouldn't be such a pariah on Mack Movie Night. And unless you all want to engage with - in the words of Hadrian from Cinefamily - "an entire nation with post-traumatic stress disorder", do not double-down on my recommendations and choose The Act of Killing for the next family viewing.

Yeah, same here. I can't even really pinpoint what it was that I didn't like about it...it was just a weird film that kind of kept the viewer at arm's length without ever really providing a satisfying resolution.

I didn't think it was bad, but for me, the problem was that Nichols didn't seem to know how to make a film that relied so heavily on internal life. A lot of the ways that struggle was visualized had a distinct schlock-horror feel, and when it came time to dig in and explore what was inside Shannon's character, it came across as frustratingly empty. Mud succeeded because it was the opposite case - Nichols seemed to fully understand what each of those characters was going through, and every piece of the story functioned organically from that.


Speaking of other (mostly) traditionally entertaining adventure stories....I don't remember if I talked about William Friedkin's Sorcerer after I saw it in 35mm back in May, but he tweeted yesterday that the digital restoration (which he has been working on for a while) is done and premiering at Venice at the end of the month, with a theatrical release to follow. I'll remind you again when US dates are revealed, but put it in your brains now that this is NOT to be missed. The film is a remake of The Wages of Fear - I mention this for those who have seen it, as I haven't yet - that Friedkin basically spent all of his post-Exorcist/French Connection clout to get made, only to see it buried for years in a sea of lawsuits and dueling studio rights. It's basically Reservoir Dogs mixed with Fitzcarraldo, and every bit as great as that description would lead you to believe. It's also the first movie that Tangerine Dream scored. I would say more, but I assume you're all already camping out in front of your neighborhood theater.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

Speaking of other (mostly) traditionally entertaining adventure stories....I don't remember if I talked about William Friedkin's Sorcerer after I saw it in 35mm back in May, but he tweeted yesterday that the digital restoration (which he has been working on for a while) is done and premiering at Venice at the end of the month, with a theatrical release to follow. I'll remind you again when US dates are revealed, but put it in your brains now that this is NOT to be missed. The film is a remake of The Wages of Fear - I mention this for those who have seen it, as I haven't yet - that Friedkin basically spent all of his post-Exorcist/French Connection clout to get made, only to see it buried for years in a sea of lawsuits and dueling studio rights. It's basically Reservoir Dogs mixed with Fitzcarraldo, and every bit as great as that description would lead you to believe. It's also the first movie that Tangerine Dream scored. I would say more, but I assume you're all already camping out in front of your neighborhood theater.

I had this to say about the movie last year...

I watched Will Friedkin's Sorcerer from 1977 earlier this week. It's a remake of a 1950s film. it centers around a group of men who have found themselves self-exiled in the same South American town only to take the job of transporting extremely volatile nitroglycerin and explosives on trucks through 200 miles of nearly impenetrable jungle to blast out a burning oil well. It's a truly first rate thriller that had me gasping at parts. it takes a rather long time setting up each guy's personal story before getting to the jungles, but it's terrific. Unfortunately this movie is in serious need of a makeover. As it is, it only exists on home video in 4:3, which is a fucking shame because it's a gorgeously shot movie. The locations are as much of characters as the human actors are. the current picture is very grainy too. I've reading about a current lawsuit over right that Friedkin has going on right now to try and get this thing restored and released, which i really hope gets done. This movie is a monster.

And FUCK I am super excited about a restored theatrical release!!!

Also, I finally got around to watching The Master last night. It certainly is perplexing, but I really, really liked it.

[schoolofruckus]

How did you see it, out of curiosity?

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

How did I see Sorcerer? There's a crappy dvd release that netflix has. I happened to have read about it last year (I think The Playlist was doing a Friedkin retrospective in anticipation of Killer Joe coming out) and there it was on Netflix.

[Down Rodeo]

Mud was indeed excellent.
....

Guys, the widespread praise for The Act of Killing is entirely warranted. It's a phenomenal film that has only grown in my head since I saw it on Monday night. I'd love to talk more, but it's better to walk in cold and do your research after it's over.

I couldn't agree more with these statements. I had just come in here to post about The Act of Killing after seeing it last night. This film will shake you to the core. I've rarely seen a more chilling and gut-wrenching (almost literally in the final third) exploration of evil, violence and immorality. I can hardly imagine the filmmaker intended the film to develop the way it did, which makes it all the more special.

[TomServo]

Jesus Christ Elysium is terrible.

If you were even a little thinking about going to see this film, punch yourself in the nuts instead. It looked great (sfx-wise) and Damon and Copley were both good, but Jodie Foster and the script were freaking TERRRRRRIBLE. Just awful. The politics were so obvious, as well. Yuck. What a waste of a big budget.

[Grandma]

Elysium was the most disappointing film i've seen so far this year. 3.5 boners out of 10 boners.

[unit300021]

Just watched the Larry David HBO film Clear History and that shit was pretty fucking funny. The only real semi negative part of it was that at times it felt like a long drawn out episode of curb. However that is only a negative if you don't like Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[TallGuyCM]

I liked Mud. Not quite as much as many on here though.

[bobert]

I also liked Mud a great deal, but can we all admit that the climax was terrible? For over two hours the director succeeded at creating an extremely believable set of characters and circumstances and the ending felt tacked on from another (lesser) movie. Didn't ruin the film by any means but definitely held it from greatness.

I watched The Place Beyond the Pines last night and found it thoroughly compelling. Flawed, for sure, but consistently unique and surprising. I didn't realize it was the same director (Derek Cianfrance) from Blue Valentine until after the movie was finished. He's a rare talent.

[schoolofruckus]

Cianfrance is super talented, but goddamn was Place Beyond the Pines a disappointment. I would apply all of the kind words you use - compelling, unique, surprising - but I can't get over its moronic views of father-son relations. It's one of the most well-crafted bad movies I've seen in a long time.

On a similar note, I saw the beginning of Beasts of the Southern Wild on HBO yesterday and immediately wanted to fight you again.

[schoolofruckus]

Prince Avalanche is pretty fucking solid, though. I won't be among those who put it on the same tier as David Gordon Green's first three movies (then again, I also don't consider The Sitter to be the worst film ever made), but it's a gorgeously shot little character piece. Computer Chess is even better - a wickedly, delightfully bizarre descent into the thrilling and paranoid realm of artificial intelligence that places Andrew Bujalski's trademark inelegant conversation in the perfect context: a competition between visionaries of technology. If you count these two alongside the transcendent Upstream Color, plus the likes of Mud, No, Sightseers and the presumed-excellent Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Before Midnight, plus about a dozen other films I have yet to catch up with.....that's some stellar pedigree, Sundance '13.

[bobert]

Cianfrance is super talented, but goddamn was Place Beyond the Pines a disappointment. I would apply all of the kind words you use - compelling, unique, surprising - but I can't get over its moronic views of father-son relations. It's one of the most well-crafted bad movies I've seen in a long time.

On a similar note, I saw the beginning of Beasts of the Southern Wild on HBO yesterday and immediately wanted to fight you again.

I'm wondering if I would have been similarly disappointed had I approached the movie with any sort of expectations other than a Ryan Gosling heist movie with a respectable Rotten Tomatoes score. Once again my ignorance works in my favor.

Funny you mention Beasts because I thought of you while reading a rather un-insightful review for Mud. This particularly critic was praising Nichol's film for what he or she saw as his refreshingly "unromantic" view of southern poverty and used the opportunity to slam BOTSW for (allegedly) doing the opposite. One could argue this a preposterous comparison since one film was going for realism while the other dabbled in fantasy, but they both took place in "The South" so I guess it's fair game. Thankfully the reviewer stopped short of praising Nichol's for his all-white cast, which I imagine only added to the realism. Write what you know, am I right?

[schoolofruckus]

Yeah, I wouldn't agree that Mud is any sort of atonement for Beasts' sins. The two films have completely different thematic aims, and it sounds like the only point in reading Mud as having any real concern with poverty would be to take a flagrant shot at Beasts. So, you know, I'm okay with it even though it's stupid.

[TallGuyCM]

Sightseers

I don't think I posted about it in here, but I watched this last week. I wasn't too keen on it. And I enjoyed the hell out of Kill List.

[schoolofruckus]

I thought it was goddamn funny. Nothing terribly memorable, but a nice dark comedy.

His A Field in England sounds fantastic, though.