droid

Well-known member
The new Invisible Man is good. Reimagined as the ultimate domestic abuse nightmare. Surprisingly effective.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Watched new film The Hunt today. Quite a good over the top mixture of... I dunno Battle Royale and the Last Supper (is that what it's called, the one where liberal hipsters invite red necks etc to dinner and poison them?) with loads of cartoonish violence and a few mini twists. Plus jokes at the expense of hang-wringing (albeit murderous) liberals and so on. Not really sure what the politics of the film actually are, I got the feeling it was something like "Let's take the piss out of everyone and blow some stuff up" but it's very watchable... although as so often I felt that they didn't really have any idea of how to finish it off.
 
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nochexxx

harco pronting
Watched new film The Hunt today. Quite a good over the top mixture of... I dunno Battle Royale and the Last Supper (is that what it's called, the one where liberal hipsters invite red necks etc to dinner and poison them?) with loads of cartoonish violence and a few mini twists. Plus jokes at the expense of hang-wringing (albeit murderous) liberals and so on. Not really sure what the politics of the film actually are, I got the feeling it was something like "Let's take the piss out of everyone and blow some stuff up" but it's very watchable... although as so often I felt that they didn't really have any idea of how to finish it off.

the films premise immediately reminded me of this Ozploitation masterpiece :D

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Nice one, I'll check that out I guess, the name rings a bell.
Just watched a superior sci-fi type thing - well, not sci-fi as such, it's called Level 16 and it was on telly now, I gave it a go and it was surprisingly good (possibly cos I wasn't expecting anything). Basically it's the same plot as Never Let Me Go or, there was this French film (I think) from a few years back with all these girls being groomed through a mysterious school, but this is much darker, literally. While the above both gave the young girls some kind of pleasure while being led towards their mysterious and rapturous ending, in this one they live incarcerated in windowless rooms with ugly strip-lighting. Once a week they are allowed to watch an old movie (and all their names are taken from those old stars; Rita, Ava etc) from a small collection, all of which they know by heart. The rest of the time they watch indoctrinating videos and are lectured to by the sinister Miss Birxil before being drugged for night and left to the tender mercies of the Russian speaking guards. The film is slow and all about atmosphere and it's no big surprise where it's going but I thought it was extremely well done, claustrophobic and bleak and a lot managed by good acting from the young cast with no special fx or any of that.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Few free bits on yt, good way to test a new iPad to tv connection

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari


Nosferatu


Night of the Living Dead


Lockdown classics went a bit Roeg-esque among others - Don’t Look Now, Death in Venice, Performance, Eureka, (!!!), Bad Timing, Insignificance. Got The Devils for tonight for the full collective of psychosis.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Betty Blue, director's cut. Watched it again on a whim after not seeing it for years and years. Really brilliant, they don't make films like this anymore. Really good sex scenes, lots of great characters. Lots of unnecessary digressions but you go with em. The soundtrack also very good, the same refrain popping up again and again. It gets horribly sad towards the end. I might track down the novel it's based on at some point.
 

luka

Well-known member
That's woops' favourite film. Not sure if it's cos he loves French birds or if he loves French birds cos this is his favourite film.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Would be interested to know if woops has read it. Yeah it's very stereotypically gallic in a lot of ways I think. Like Betty is like an idyllic french girl.

I love how they drink coffee out of bowls and dip their bread in. Great set pieces as well, like the burning down house and when they go driving in his new car.

I like how there's a sad ending, not enough films do this. It's why I like the safdies as well. They have the courage to follow through. All films should end sadly, if the protagonists have truly been themselves and reached beyond themselves, which is really what we all want to see.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
The Conformist. Been a while, got to skive some man cave time & random folder click. Should’ve done sooner. The story is solid, but it’s like a well chiselled sculpture on film. Insides of buildings hosting insane bureaucracies never looked better. Re-e-wound one scene just to bask in the world created & depicted. Sounds pretentious, but stunning film making.

Wild At Heart. Another that’s been too long. Diane Ladd’s lipstick-faced meltdown, Jack Nance & Bobby Peru save the day. Didn’t help watching immediately after Blue Velvet (the squeaky voice Freddie Jones made sense). Another where strong performers embed their way into your mind repeatedly over the years.

Mandy. Well, yes but no but yes, ish. Always bike riders getting the shitty associations, it’s enough dealing with cars. Wasn’t expecting shady whatshisface Roache’s shady son to appear. Cue Coronation St theme in head at inopportune moments. Colourful, not really much beyond that except evil sneering mullets & Hellraiser imagery plagiarism.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I watched 'The Host' the other night - thought it was fucking brilliant. Legit scary and horrifying at points, but also a really funny satire and moving family drama, and all directed with the skill of a director like Hitchcock. Dodgy CGI wasn't even a problem.

Also rewatched "Spirited Away" for maybe the fifth time - not seen in ages, and was delighted to find it still transcendently beautiful and mysterious.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I rather enjoyed this new retelling of the classic fairytale as Gretel and Hansel. A bit slow in parts but very strong atmosphere with some amazing imagery and sounds.

 

Woebot

Well-known member
cassavetes "shadows"

always wanted to see this.

slightly blindsided by the character in black face (i mean like WTF) - but given that he's suppposed to be half-caste perhaps partly excusable

great opening scene under credits of a party rocking and rolling - getting high and wild - to a guy playing a piano - communal ecstacy

beautiful divine-looking lalia.

wouldn't unreservedly reccomend - but still one to see.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The Conformist. Been a while, got to skive some man cave time & random folder click. Should’ve done sooner. The story is solid, but it’s like a well chiselled sculpture on film. Insides of buildings hosting insane bureaucracies never looked better. Re-e-wound one scene just to bask in the world created & depicted. Sounds pretentious, but stunning film making.

I wrote something about The Conformist about a year ago, in case you are interested:

https://guerrapittura.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/interpreting-fascism-in-the-conformist/
 
I watched 'The Host' the other night - thought it was fucking brilliant. Legit scary and horrifying at points, but also a really funny satire and moving family drama, and all directed with the skill of a director like Hitchcock. Dodgy CGI wasn't even a problem.

Watched this about 12 years back so don't remember a lot, but I loved it at the time, unlike any other horror I'd watched because of the balance with humour as you say. the size of the monster and physics of its movement was perfect too, in the sense it was a bit more relatable to the intimidation of larger animals than some impossibly massive godzilla
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
extremely beautiful use of piano music in this film as i remember
Watched Shadows a couple of weeks ago. For sone reason, out of the 'important' - for want of a better word - directors he's maybe the one I know least... intend to put that right though. Probably will rewatch Shadows first.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Finally got round to watching The Color Out Of Space and it was a lot stronger in terms of its nastiness than I was expecting. As a whole it was quite limited.... one note one of my facebook friends said and he's right. No real sense of cosmic horror as such - although there were all those little Lovecraftian touches such as the Necronomicon and a few other things - though I guess that's not really there in the story either. I think it was one of the less silly stories which is why I liked it. I could be wrong but I thought that in the story things developed over a longer period and there was this greater sense of hopelessness and creeping dread which was sacrificed here for a load of gory action. So not at all perfect but entertaining enough and quite different from most horror films I can think of off the top of my head where there is usually a monster (or monsters) or some kind of specific evil ghost or whatever instead of this intangible miasma spreading over the area.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
I could be wrong but I thought that in the story things developed over a longer period and there was this greater sense of hopelessness and creeping dread which was sacrificed here for a load of gory action.

One of my pet peeves with modern horror, psychological or otherwise, is that there always has to be a death at the end of it all. A reason to stay with the source books or worlds in question, but that’s a tangent. It’s one thing to indulge the gore, I just prefer it more when someone survives their bout of turmoil & is left to deal (indefinitely) with the aftermath, than go with the boss kill. Far more traumatic & realistic trying to make sense of the dread, than a jumble of corpses. Lazy point but the meaning is in there somewhere.
 
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