Bone Tomahawk.
Amazing flick. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Part western, part horror.
“This is why frontier life is so difficult. Not because of the Indians or the elements, but because of the idiots.”
Obviously she took Kirk Lazarus’s advice.
It was sort of Tarantino meets Coen brothers–very talky with stilted quasi-period dialog for much of movie. They took their time to establish a mood. It was always interesting to watch, even if not much was happening. I particularly liked Richard Jenkins take on the Gabby Hays role. It was an Oscar-worthy performance.
It was less “horror” than I anticipated based on people’s comments. I found it to be more of a straightforward, but at times grisly, western. Maybe “horrific” would be a better descriptor.
I just watched **The Wolfpack ** last night.
It is a very interesting documentary, sometimes haunting, sometimes fascinating in terms of how creative the boys are. In a nutshell, a husband and wife keep their 6 boys and 1 girl in their New York apartment nearly all the time, for years, hardly ever allowing them to go out. The boys become obsessed with movies to the point of recreating and acting out scenes, complete with homemade costumes and props.
I thought it was terrible. The video and audio quality were bad (unless maybe I got a sub-standard DVD). The boys were all fairly dim-witted. Not surprising since they have never been allowed out of their apartment. Never. In their entire lives.
I couldn’t watch the entire thing. I watched the first half and then just skimmed the second half - confirming that at no point did this movie stop sucking. It sucked real hard.
Actually, they had been out several times, just not very often. And later, the entire family went out to an orchard together and finally got some time outdoors.
The boys didn’t strike me as dim witted at all. You don’t become a dim bulb just by being indoors a lot. They were home schooled, literate, well versed in movies, memorizing lines and actions, creating artwork, and being as busy as a body can in a confined space. Dimwits aren’t that creative.
I agree with all you say. It’s a wonderful documentary and I’m glad it’s getting attention. I love these guys. It’s been fun watching the boys as they’ve been to film festivals and special screenings, meeting some of their movie-making heroes. Soon enough the attention will die down, but I hope they’re inspired to keep being creative, and keep up with the contacts they’ve made. If The Wolfpack gets an Oscar nomination it’ll be so great to see them there, enjoying themselves. It can’t win (I’m expecting Amy or The Look of Silence to win) but I hope they have a blast if they get the chance to go.
Our MotW was The Big Short. Bit of a review in the thread for that here. (Spoilers).
Highly recommend to one and all.
Dunno. The trailer put me off somehow. Maybe it was Steve Carrell’s weird affect.
My eldest son is home from university and on a Star Wars kick, so together we’ve recently seen:
SW Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith
The best of the prequels (which isn’t saying much), with some great action sequences as Palpatine seizes power and smites the Jedi.
SW Ep. IV: A New Hope
Still my favorite of them all. Other than Han and Luke’s Seventies haircuts, it still holds up very well, with a near-perfect mix of action, adventure, combat, humor, mysticism and romance.
SW Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back
The battle on wintry Hoth, the escape through the asteroid field and Luke’s training with Yoda are the best parts of this movie, but its cliffhanger ending keeps it out of contention for the top prize.
SW Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
Bad: another Death Star and those damn Ewoks. Good: Luke confronts the Emperor and Vader achieves some form of redemption before his death. A better movie than I remembered, I have to admit.
SW Ep. VII: The Force Awakens
Saw it a second time and, despite the overfamiliar final act, enjoyed it all over again. I appreciated the music more, as well as the character Rey and the mystery of Luke Skywalker.
About Steve Carrell - I just watched Anchorman (2004)
There were two scenes: One with Carrell riding on top of a Grizzly Bear and the other with him wrestling with the bear.
They both looked very real to me. But surely they must have been staged somehow or must have been some kind of camera trick. Mustn’t they?
Even in 2004, he was a major star and I can’t imagine he would risk his life in that way.
I suppose the bear may have been sedated. But the only way I would have done that was if the bear was dead. If he really did that, I would be amazed and have a whole new level or respect for him. What courage that would take!
As far as The Big Short goes, I thought it was one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Easily would make it into my Top Ten list.
Still scratching my head about this one:
“Enemy - 2013 - Thriller/Mystery - 1h 35m
A mild-mannered college professor (Jake Gyllenhaal) discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man’s private affairs.”
I love psychological thrillers, but c’mon …
A multiple-personality decent into madness?
I didn’t want to start a new thread for this. But I’d like to ask if anyone has seen Sarah Silverman’s new movie “I Smile Back” (2015).
There was a recent news article about The Golden Globes and it contained a round table discussion among some of the very best directors working today. Including:
Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight), Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant), Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl), Todd Haynes (Carol) and a few others. I think Todd Haynes was one of them but I’m not really 100% certain.
Anyway, I don’t know if this is the first serious drama that Sarah Silverman has made. But one of the directors in the discussion I referred to above (I’m pretty sure it was Alejandro), talked about that movie and said it was really superb.
I’m just wondering if anyone here has seen it?
OK. I found that discussion. Here it is:
In the last 6 weeks I’ve seen Trumbo, The Big Short, Joy, and Carol.
Big Short was the best of them, but I’d recommend them all. I enjoyed Joy more than I thought I would.
My wife’s BFF walked out on Hateful Eight, which is unfortunate – I like Tarantino a lot and we would probably have seen it, otherwise.
Our MotW was Carol. Very good movie. Cate Blanchett is top notch, and while Kate is my favorite Mara sister, Rooney does a pretty good job. Generally a good cast.
Contains a surprising amount of tense/on edge scenes. Well thought out story overall.
One oddity: Carrie Brownstein gets an opening titles credit, her character is listed by name in the closing credits. But it’s a completely insignificant role. ~3 lines and her character name isn’t mentioned. There’s no “room” in the timing for deleted scenes or anything.
BTW: That guy you’re trying to place the whole movie, Therese’s boyfriend, is played by
Pete, from The Office.:smack:
Re:* I Smile Back*. Fairly good movie. Real downer, of course. But better than the usual addiction story. Fairly realistic at times but not always.
I like Sarah Silverman in general and it’s nice to see her pushing to the limit in another direction. Worth seeing on video.
Bridge of Spies.
Decent enough movie. But just didn’t click.
Some good acting. Tom Hanks was his usual Tom Hanks but I expected something more from him. So he got overshadowed by people like Mark Rylance. And of course the actress playing his wife, Amy Ryan, is much younger. What a surprise.
The U-2 part of it seemed off. Like it was written/directed/etc. by a whole different set of people. Had a “TV feel” to it.
Several scenes were gratuitous “Commies are bad people.” stuff. Didn’t really propel the story. Since it’s over 2 hours long, these and several other bits could have been tossed.
Okay filler movie when there’s nothing else available.
I saw two this week on Netflix (my wife’s out of town):
The good: The Returned–zombie film where the Zs are secondary characters. Actually an allegory for the AIDS epidemic. Well acted, mostly believable; I thought the ending was very satisfactory. YMMV.
The bad: Rubber–an automobile tire in a dump comes to life and uses its telekinetic power to blow up whatever it comes across, mostly people’s heads. Not any where near as much fun as it sounds. Wings Hauser is the only “name” and gets very little to do. You must have SOMETHING better to do to fill 81 minutes.
The worst: House of Wax–Teen horror film; you’ve seen it a thousand times. Any film where Paris Hilton is the best acted and most sympathetic character has got a major problem. Totally wastes Elisha Cuthbert. I’ve only seen 3 ten minute stretches, so far, that’s all I can take in one sitting–I might not finish it, if it ever gets started (if you know what I mean).
I just recently discovered this link and wanted to post it here in case any of you have not seen it before. It’s a list of the best 250 movies as rated on IMDB. I hope it may be of value to you:
Saw Brooklyn about a young woman immigrating from Ireland to New York in the 1950s. The film is a Best Picture nominee, and the lead, Saoirse Ronan, up for Best Actress.
I liked it. A- rating. It reminded me of* Lars and the Real Girl* because a lot of the characters were written as nice people. There were exceptions, but generally if a character could do the decent thing that is what they did.
The film got a 90+ approval percentage on Rotten Tomatoes from both audience and critics. The New Yorker thought it was a soulless, by the numbers, art film. I didn’t think that. I cried a couple times, and there were some funny parts. I thought it less manipulative than Bridge of Spies (the only other Best Picture nom I’ve seen.)
Much of the film’s charm was calm acceptance of the social mores and limitations of the era. The characters are creatures of their times and don’t make a big deal about dealing with society’s restrictions.
Some Issues:
The first 2/3s were better than the last third.
There wasn’t any of the true ugliness of the 1950s – I don’t remember seeing a black actor in the film, there was nothing about communism, etc.
I saw “Snatch” on cable recently. It was a fairly funny caper movie. Didn’t take itself seriously at all. There was a lot of violence, but it was comic book violence. Featured Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Benicio del Toro and some other talented actors. It requires some attention to watch, but it rewards you with plenty of sharp, snappy dialogue and some fun, interesting characters. Would DEFINITELY fail that feminist test where two female characters have to talk about something other than a man for more than a minute. I’m not sure the movie even HAD two female characters: the only one I can think of is Brad Pitt’s mom.
The DVD/BD for Snatch is fun - you can chose general subtitles or ones just for Brad Pitt. If you chose the latter, there’s a bit where the subtitles say, “???”.