Ryan McNeil
Something a little funny happened this week.
I was at my parents place and found myself flipping channels to kill a bit of time during a down moment in the visit. As I looked around, I happened upon VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d watched it so I left it on for a while and caught half an hour or so.
Thing was, after I stepped away from that half-hour dose I found myself remembering how much I liked the movie . So when I got home that night, I grabbed my blu-ray copy and tossed it on from the beginning.
Like I said – a little funny. Hell, just reading that back to myself it seems full-on nerdy. But it’s not the craziest thing in the world i it? It’s not like I had a bite of cake, remembered how much I love cake, and decided to go home and bake a cake, right? Backing a movie up to watch it from the beginning, maybe in this metaphor that’s just like having a little more cake.
Help me here people…get me out of this metaphor. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
WISH I WAS HERE – Exhibit A in why not every director deserves autonomy.
A MOST WANTED MAN – My imagination, or did this film get dumped with no fanfare?
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
SCARFACE (1932)- Sometimes I forget how much I love old gangster movies. It might be time for a marathon.
DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES & MENTORS OF RICKY JAY – I sorta expected this to be better. Pretty static considering its subject.
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER – Worth it just for Ewan McGregor’s hair.
NEWLYWEDS – I’m glad Edward Burns returned to making movies like this.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
THE HOURS – This was way better than I remembered it being.
CHICAGO – A double-feature with THE HOURS in prep for an episode of The Dew Over
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA – Like I say, I backed-up and watched this…
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – …which got followed by this.
MATCH POINT – Unpopular as this might be, this might be my favorite trio of Woody movies.
THE FIFTH ELEMENT – I might still see LUCY, for now I stuck with this.
I LOOOOOVVEEE your rewatched list <3 I actually watched Jack the Giant Slayer in theatres.
I regret that.
I’ve watched nothing ‘cuz exams suck balls but guess where The Grand Busapest Hotel has finally released?
I’m torn with Budapest.
Part of me wants to go out and buy a copy on blu-ray right now, the other half feels like I should sit back and wait for the inevitable Criterion edition.
The old SCARFACE is so good! I like it a lot more than the remake, though I am partial to Howard Hawks.
Another good week:
LES DIABOLIQUES – my Blind Spots film for July – going up Monday!
SNOWPIERCER – my favorite film of the year so far (sorry, Grand Budapest!)
ANITA: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER – a pretty standard documentary, but a fascinating topic
Damn – that looks like a solid week!
As the day goes on, I hope to finally start reading people’s Blindspot posts, and yours intrigues me quite a bit since it was one of my own Blindspots last year.
I’d be curious to get your thoughts on Les Diaboliques. I was a little surprised it made the cut in the readers’ vote given some of the other choices that weren’t picked. I can totally get it after seeing the film, though.
First-Timers: 30 for 30: The U, Bonjour Tristesse, My Blind Spot assignment in The Maltese Falcon, The Night of the Hunter, 30 for 30: You Don’t Know Bo, King of the Hill, and later tonight, Midnight Cowboy.
Re-Watches: My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Doom Generation, and Gravity.
Thanks for the reminder – I just noticed that I’d put up today’s Blind Spot post without linking to your entry. Fixed now.
Can’t say I was the biggest fan of Bonjour Tristesse, but then, perhaps I had unreal expectations about what I was getting into.
I can’t think of a specific time when I’ve come in partway and then restarted the movie in earnest, but I’m sure I’ve done it before. I know I’ve come in on the middle of Back to the Future on TV, and when it restarted I just kept watching. I love that movie sooooo much.
Just saw one movie this week, my Blind Spot for the month (so it’ll actually be on time for a change!):
The Great Silence – a great film for anyone looking to expand their spaghetti western horizons beyond the Leone films. Shocked it’s taken me this long to see it.
…..guess who’s never seen The Great Silence?
Haven’t seen much this week. Just the film Persona which was very interesting. I also rewatched Another Year which was on TV one evening. I liked it even more this time.
Speaking of Woody Allen, he just did his first podcast. It’s called Happy Sad Confused. You should check it out. It’s a delightful half hour.
I understand that he didn’t even fully know what a podcast was while he was doing it. Classic. If you dig into the Podcast tab of this site, you’ll find a show I did a few summers back with my friend Simon Columb called “The Film Locker” – episode two was dedicated to Woody Allen films.
LOVE Persona – one of my favorite first-watches of the last year or so. It was a blind spot discovery for me!
Match Point is great. I am convinced that had it been made prior to Allen’s weird slump in the late 90s/early 2000s it would receive a lot more love from people.
New to me:
The Mission – Let’s just say the rest of The Dew Over panel did not share my love of this film…
Oldboy (Spike Lee version) – Remember how I mentioned that Woody Allen slump? Spike seems to be in his at the moment.
Red Hook Summer – There is a lot of promising stuff here, it is just a shame it all comes near the end. The wait for Spike’s own Match Point continues.
Bringing Out the Dead – Well this was a pleasant surprise! I wish Scorsese made a few more films like this.
Mandingo – Had seen the sequel Drum, but never the original.
Blue Ruin – Gosh did I ever love this film.
Divergent – Flawed but more interesting than I expected it would be.
Re-watched
Hannah and Her Sisters – Dew Over prep. This is my favourite Woody Allen film.
It’s funny, for me Match Point was sorta where I sat up and started to take notice of Woody. Prior to that, I didn’t really “get” him. Doesn’t hurt that it was the first of his films that I watched in a theatre.
Ever since then, he seems to have followed a one-on-one-off rhythm…which makes me worry about what I’m in for with Magic in The Moonlight…