FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

[Cordelia]

I watched that SRA movie couple weeks ago. It was terrible in every way, but what especially struck me was the complete lack of acting talent Emma Watson seems to have! Shame cos i really liked the director's previous movie "The Others" which imo was a stylish and smart horror with Nicole Kidman.

I agree. I lasted about 20 minutes before deciding it was a complete waste of time; bad script, no character or plot development, etc......

fwiw.....'Colonia' wasn't directed by Alejandro Amenábar, who directed 'The Others' (and also 'The Sea Inside', an excellent film staring Javier Bardem.)

[brekin]

Time to re-watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKPFC8DA9_8

The Nightmare of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil 30 Years Later
A dystopian fantasy that remains as arresting and prescient as ever
http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/12/t ... ars-later/

Yes, (sigh) I think Brazil holds up so well because it was prescient in a poetical way of what was going on back then and to come. There was also a humanity there that it was trying to safeguard I felt.
Now, I feel that the world almost watching Brazil back then had chosen the aesthetics and not the ethos in the film of Brazil. Celebrating dystopian chic/ministry of truth organizational vibe/cyber punk vagabondism/total bureaucracy and evaporation of privacy (orwellian now just called social networking) tech fetishism at the cost of human or environmental connection, etc. is so normal now that the pre-internet 1985 film somehow made quaint and kitschy with its type writerish internet.

I feel that Brazils set design has overtaken its message to where one can't even make a new current good satirical or critical take on it now, with out re-inscribing basically modern life for many in the contemporary world who gleefully choose it. I kind of feel that even Gilliam has been effected to where all he can do is basically show "future life" as a day in the life now, as he did with the Zero Theorem, which ends up as really just feeling like a lost weekend of front end developer in the bay area on E. (I only lasted 30 minutes into it.) We are bored with cyber totalitarianism & digital existentialism because it is so 2010. People don't want to subvert the Ministry of Truth and fly away with girl now, they want to be the Neo at the top of the pyramid of the Ministry of Truth.

[Harvey]

@Harvey: In the Mouth of Madness is a great movie. It's part of Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy, the other two movies being The Thing and Prince of Darkness, both very good movies if you haven't seen them. Prince of Darkness is pretty cheesy in places, but the overall story is awesome.

I also kinda like the new The Thing movie, probably because they use actual Norwegians to play the Norwegians, and not just a bunch or random Danes and Swedes like they usually do, and the creature looks pretty cool.

Didn't know there was yet another version of John W Campbell's "Who Goes There?" Many thanks for the tip.

I have of course seen everything by Carpenter, and agree, Prince of Darkness is as usual unforgettably awesome.

[Harvey]

I'll be watching this next week, FACT Liverpool. Q&A with George Galloway afterwards. Anyone else going?

[vince]

Just went to see "Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words"....
For the 'hard-core' (of which, I am) we've seen all this before, just not on a big screen!
But, it very well could make a few new fans....... maybe....

[DrEvil]

A couple more low budget horror affairs that are mildly entertaining:

Man Vs.


Creep

[Wombaticus Rex]

A couple more low budget horror affairs that are mildly entertaining:

Has Banshee Chapter been discussed yet?

"The film is loosely based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story "From Beyond" and the 1986 film From Beyond," says the Jimmy Wales Project, but I'm not buying it.

The director, Blair Erickson, has been pretty blunt about his inspirations, recently name-checking Stranger Things as another pop-culture media artifact based on the cold human truths of MKULTRA and the endless spin-off franchises thereof.

Heavy Rick Strassman vibes, too -- recall the clairvoyant friend of his who told him she saw him surrounded by bleak entities who wanted to use his work as a gateway:

DMT-19 works as a "radio antenna" of sorts that allows otherworldly entities to broadcast signals to the people on the drug as well as take over their bodies. They also realize that the government never came up with DMT-19 but instead received instructions from the otherworldly entities and made the drug without realizing the full implication of their actions.

Some Canadian we all know has a whole book about that, eh?

[DrEvil]

I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Definitely a Rigint worthy movie: DMT, extra-dimensional entities, MK-Ultra, number stations and a Hunter S. Thompson-esque writer.

[Agent Orange Cooper]

Fun fact about Banshee Chapter: it was produced by Young Spock's production studio (Zachary Quinto), along with Margin Call, which was an expose on the 2008 financial crash.

[DrEvil]

Cool. Didn't know that. Gonna watch Margin Call tonight. I need something to cleanse my brain after watching the extended cut of Batman V Superman yesterday.

[Harvey]

I'll be watching this next week, FACT Liverpool. Q&A with George Galloway afterwards. Anyone else going?

Saw it last night at FACT in Liverpool. There are fewer omissions than I expected, as one audience member pointed out the story of Doctor Kelly being among of them. On the plus side Galloway includes almost everything that is provable and it is a damning list of crimes.

Hopefully it'll function as a disinfectant, eroding both Blair's list of friends and the culture of impunity he and other world leaders have enjoyed as well as helping to place the necessary purge of the Labour party to the forefront. To that end make sure as many people see it as you can. The film is available for streaming over the next week or so from the usual vendors.

John Pilger's Utopia and The War on Democracy are also well worth a viewing. Both films available in full below courtesy of John Pilger:

[brekin]

Great, long documentary on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Pretty amazing, revalatory and watchable for a music documentary. Should have been titled: My Way, or rather Our Way.
Petty seems like the rare bird, a conservative iconoclast. A take no shit, idiosyncratic, individual artist who is really also open to collaboration and nurturing long term musical partnerships. I've always loved his work as an artist but was amazed at the combination of tenaciousness and humility that has made such work possible.

I had no idea the distance he went against record companies with publishing rights and record prices.
Really inspiring, but I kind of felt like he was the last of the Mohicans, last DJ, watching this.
It would be nice to see another Tom Petty come along that is so focused on the performing, songwriting, and recording to capture something higher, instead of the baubles those things can bring.

[PufPuf93]

Great, long documentary on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

>>When the Greg Kihn Band played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first time on a Thursday night back in the 70’s at The Keystone Berkeley, the place was packed. Expectations were high. All we knew about Tom and the Heartbreakers was their first album<<

http://gregkihn.com/blog/greg-kihn-reme ... showed-up/

That Friday Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played a free concert at noon at Lower Sproul Plaza on the Cal campus (and I learned of Petty). Petty played four nights Keystone Berkeley and I went Saturday night and saw Petty and Kihn after "practicing" by buying Petty's first album. In mid 1980s I saw Petty again as opening act and he played (guitarist and vocalist) a partial set with Dylan and the Band at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View (one of two times ever at Shoreline the other was for the Dead). I'd love to see this move. I haven't been out to live rock and roll since 1994 but do entertain myself with old clips found on the internet.

[brekin]

Great, long documentary on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

>>When the Greg Kihn Band played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first time on a Thursday night back in the 70’s at The Keystone Berkeley, the place was packed. Expectations were high. All we knew about Tom and the Heartbreakers was their first album<<

http://gregkihn.com/blog/greg-kihn-reme ... showed-up/

That Friday Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played a free concert at noon at Lower Sproul Plaza on the Cal campus (and I learned of Petty). Petty played four nights Keystone Berkeley and I went Saturday night and saw Petty and Kihn after "practicing" by buying Petty's first album. In mid 1980s I saw Petty again as opening act and he played (guitarist and vocalist) a partial set with Dylan and the Band at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View (one of two times ever at Shoreline the other was for the Dead). I'd love to see this move. I haven't been out to live rock and roll since 1994 but do entertain myself with old clips found on the internet.

If you get the chance it is on Netflix. Worth the time.

[JackRiddler]

Wow. Just saw this challenger to Primer in the category of time travel done seriously. I'm going to post the trailer, but DON'T WATCH IT, IT GIVES AWAY TOO MUCH.

Los Chronocrimenes (Timecrimes, Nacho Vigalondo, Espana, 2007).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrzI3lVzQnM

How many movies give a starring role to Schrödinger's Cat?

That relates to one problem with it that I won't mention, however (as that would also be a spoiler).

It's rare that you watch a movie in which you see every single moment coming in advance and that's actually marvelous and gives it driving force.

.