Days of The Week (Films Watched 10/1 – 10/7)

18 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched 10/1 – 10/7)”

1. Well, aside from the upcoming LAMB MOTM subject in Bronson (which was awesome), I saw Carlos Saura’s Peppermint Frappe and Tarsem’s The Fall. I’m also watching Martin Scorsese’s documentary on George Harrison as I’ll watch the second part tomorrow.

   1. I’m really anxious to see the Harrison doc. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get to blu-ray.

2. Hey, (on behalf of Reel Insight) you’re welcome! It only took a month to cross the border to get to your mailbox!

   As for me, it’s been a typical week:

   Lean on Me
   Invictus
   Moll Flanders
   Driving Miss Daisy
   Million Dollar Baby
   Unforgiven
   Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
   The Ides of March
   50/50

   Maybe Hannah later tonight to make it an even 10.

   1. Get HANNA in if you can, quite a good’n. And looking down that list I’d wager I can guess the next actor of the week.

      As for the lag in getting the blu-ray, word from Canada Post is that you’ve been doing too many drug deals by mail and everything you send up here gets red-flagged.

3. New Films:
   -Moneyball: You and me against the world, Ryan.
   -American: The Bill Hicks Story: As a Hicks acolyte, I found only one brief stretch particularly revelatory. Rest lacked purpose, trying to be subjective when even his friends and family speak about him as a legend
   -The Circle: Panahi’s imprisonment grows only more painful with each film of his I see
   -Pearl Jam 20: Can’t say I learned that much even as a casual fan, but I was incredibly impressed by the amount of footage assembled and Crowe totally makes a Crowe film out of their story
   -50/50: Kendrick’s character shouldn’t be there, Howard’s is just atrocious, and I didn’t buy JGL for large stretches until, strangely, the sentimental last act, but Huston was divine and Serge Houde made up for the forced addition of an Alzheimer’s dad by at least playing the part believably unlike so many these days
   -Melancholia: A masterpiece, which is not a word I’ve ever been tempted to toss LVT’s way, at least not after cooling on Breaking the Waves.
   -Mission to Mars: Unfairly maligned. Finds a curiously satisfying and humanist middle ground between STAR WARS and 2001

   Rewatches:
   -Jackie Brown/Pulp Fiction: Blus look gorgeous. Still love the films
   -The Lion King: hasn’t quite held up but I still love it

   1. Interesting thoughts on 50/50, though of course I saw it differently. Go download The Matineecast for my conversation w. Leora about it.

      You’ve made me quite anxious for MELANCHOLIA, though I still have to wait a month for it to drop here.

      1. I should say that the fact I routinely have bouts of it, not outright depression but a sense of numbness and kind of hollow sadness, made me REALLY identify with it.

4. I love Mars Attacks more than most people, or anyone really. I dunno why, but when I found out that Tim Burton had made it, it made me like the director more. I’m weird like that. I personally like Donnie Darko more for the teenage angst than the whole time-travel/scary bunny thing. Also the fact that it made me a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal.

   New films watched- Source Code (I really liked it till the ending. I thought it was trying to do too much with that whole loopy thing), Purple Noon (Quite good, though Talented Mr. Ripley is better), Mean Streets (didn’t love it for some reason; but the soundtrack was brilliance).

   Rewatched films- Marie Antionette (Favourite S. Coppola, favourite Kiki flick, favourote biopic that really isn’t a biopic…oh so pretty), Drive (saw it with two other girls my age…I reiterate- oh so pretty :P), The Princess Bride (I’m reading the book and had a sudden urge to watch it…twice. Humperdink!)

   1. MARIE ANTOINETTE was actually the film that turned me off SC, but admittedly it is rather pretty.

      SOURCE CODE was a film from the spring that I really dug, and did not expect to enjoy as much as I did. Not to get all self promotional, but you might be interested in my review on it.

5. One a day for me over the past week. Here’s the damage:
   Les Temps Retrouve: One of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen with some of the worst subtitling in history.
   A.I. Artificial Intelligence: Very Spielberg. Not great, but pretty.
   Detour: Disappointing for a film that was supposed to be so formative for film noir.
   In the Loop: Brilliant, start to finish. Scary implications.
   Suna no Onna: Startling and gorgeous and great.
   Spirited Away: Didn’t live up to the hype, but still good.
   Shanghai Express: Sadly, not very good.

   1. A.I. actually plays better and better on subsequent watches. With rewatching, the Kubrickness of it starts to shine through more and more, and its inherent question of humanity becomes clearer and clearer.

      Come back to it sometime.

6. In the “DVDs I’ve never seen” category I finally picked up “Brick”, which bypassed my city in theatrical distribution and has been on the to-be-watched list since. Very clever as a riff on “The Maltese Falcon” and another great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

   1. I love BRICK s-o-o-o-o-o much. For that great writing, that grimy look, and that glorious score. For me it’s actually become one of the dvd’s I reach for on days where I’m nursing a cold.

7. The Ides of March
   Clerks II
   Thor
   Bronson
   The Beaver

   Quiet week for me.

   Only film above I’d recommend.

   1. After hearing about the climax of THE BEAVER, I actually became morbidly curious to give it a watch on blu-ray.

8. 50/50
   The Ides of March
   Air Force One
   Your Highness

   1. I was a little saddened by how joyless that YOUR HIGHNESS was. I really wanted to laugh more.

      1. I know, right? I only chuckled a few times during the flick. And only because Toby Jones (who held a gun to his head?) is being hefted around like a sack of potatoes.

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