new month. new movies on criterion. this was in the handmade films lot which was george harrisons production company and to drive that home it opens and closes on a beatles tune. a lot of talent wasted in this one. also they kept using the exterior for the horseshoe bar near tompkins but it was set in 1964 in the bronx. i wonder if any of it was actually shot there. the movie is five corners.
honestly really a shit movie and it was written by the guy who wrote moonstruck which was never my movie but has the same nostaligia-tinged outer-boroughs kitsch i guess in the hands of a better director. also not hamstrung by being a period piece even if it feels like one.
since no one should watch this of all the dumb things in the movie, it sets up these two side characters as what turns out to be high school pranksters blowing up the letters on the jewish deli so as to reveal the word shit but in the end are revealed to have shot their high school algebra teacher in the back with an arrow for no particular reason other than perhaps he is a curmudgeonly harsh grader and then in the climatic scene as a deus ex machina they kill off the crazed john turturro character again via a cupid-like arrow by somehow appearing in the shadows on a rooftop and giggling in triumph and nothing else.
should probably rewatch do the right thing for comparison which also stars turturo i assume as another unhinged, though hopefully less cartoonish nyc italian american.
never saw long good friday i dont think. put it in my huh, maybe i should watch that category last night. didnt think about rewatching mona lisa but maybe. saw that in theater probably at the on campus, cinestudio, which i should have indulged in more. dont know the third. think i rewatched time bandits not too too long ago which i loved as a kid. and i loved withnail and i when i first saw it, finally tried to rewatch and couldnt get into it. how to get ahead in advertising was a movie id see on the shelf in blockbuster and when it was finally its time because i had run out of blockbusters i liked a lot. unfamiliar with the rest.
Trying to make it through The Yards, dir. James Gray who is also one of the writers but it's such crap I don't think I can. starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn and James Caan.
Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens crooks and corruption in the NYC Transit Authority, chock full of the usual tropes and cliches, whatever, I expected that when I hit the play button, but so shittily written I can't believe it attracted such a pool of talent. Wahberg's character is "avoiding" a big manhunt for a murder that he didn't commit by running between his sick mother's house and that of the cousin he is in love with played by Charlize Theron. You'd figure the cops would have the places staked out. Theron's Crime Boss stepfather - James Caan - has some unexplained devotion to her punk boyfriend (the actual murderer) played by Juaquin Phonix, all in the name of family, yet Walberg is Caan's beloved wife's nephew and is allowed to take the fall, the script doesn't really explain why. Phoenix seems to have no relation in any way other than being Theron's beau so wtf? I guess it goes against the gangster family is everything trope so maybe that's what made it feel original to the agents and their talent. Based on a true story so maybe that's the excuse for such a lousy script getting the green light. Doesn't seem to add up but maybe I'm wrong and it's worthy of the Criterion cred. Guess I'll hit the play button again now.
good start so far but i had to stop as i got anxious that he blew off lunch with the one attractive daughter of his fathers potential business partner to pursue gwyneth. this is why its easier to watch dumb shit with little to no emotional resonance. hope it works out for those crazy kids.
committing is the hard part, after that it just kinda moves along on its own and you just go through the motions. - steve 1-03-2024 3:24 pm [add a comment]
I rewatched The Swimmer on criterion. Never disappoints. This time noticed all the abstract camera montages. - bill 1-03-2024 9:55 am [add a comment]
new month. new movies on criterion. this was in the handmade films lot which was george harrisons production company and to drive that home it opens and closes on a beatles tune. a lot of talent wasted in this one. also they kept using the exterior for the horseshoe bar near tompkins but it was set in 1964 in the bronx. i wonder if any of it was actually shot there. the movie is five corners.
- dave 1-01-2024 11:25 pm
- dave 1-01-2024 11:28 pm [add a comment]
Saw it, don't remember anything about it other than not liking it.
- steve 1-02-2024 12:21 am [add a comment]
honestly really a shit movie and it was written by the guy who wrote moonstruck which was never my movie but has the same nostaligia-tinged outer-boroughs kitsch i guess in the hands of a better director. also not hamstrung by being a period piece even if it feels like one.
since no one should watch this of all the dumb things in the movie, it sets up these two side characters as what turns out to be high school pranksters blowing up the letters on the jewish deli so as to reveal the word shit but in the end are revealed to have shot their high school algebra teacher in the back with an arrow for no particular reason other than perhaps he is a curmudgeonly harsh grader and then in the climatic scene as a deus ex machina they kill off the crazed john turturro character again via a cupid-like arrow by somehow appearing in the shadows on a rooftop and giggling in triumph and nothing else.
should probably rewatch do the right thing for comparison which also stars turturo i assume as another unhinged, though hopefully less cartoonish nyc italian american.
- dave 1-02-2024 9:53 am [add a comment]
I recently re-watched and enjoyed The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa. I liked Pow Wow Highway when it came out, not sure how it holds up.
- steve 1-02-2024 5:45 am [add a comment]
never saw long good friday i dont think. put it in my huh, maybe i should watch that category last night. didnt think about rewatching mona lisa but maybe. saw that in theater probably at the on campus, cinestudio, which i should have indulged in more. dont know the third. think i rewatched time bandits not too too long ago which i loved as a kid. and i loved withnail and i when i first saw it, finally tried to rewatch and couldnt get into it. how to get ahead in advertising was a movie id see on the shelf in blockbuster and when it was finally its time because i had run out of blockbusters i liked a lot. unfamiliar with the rest.
https://www.criterionchannel.com/handmade-films
- dave 1-02-2024 9:36 am [add a comment]
Trying to make it through The Yards, dir. James Gray who is also one of the writers but it's such crap I don't think I can. starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn and James Caan.
Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens crooks and corruption in the NYC Transit Authority, chock full of the usual tropes and cliches, whatever, I expected that when I hit the play button, but so shittily written I can't believe it attracted such a pool of talent. Wahberg's character is "avoiding" a big manhunt for a murder that he didn't commit by running between his sick mother's house and that of the cousin he is in love with played by Charlize Theron. You'd figure the cops would have the places staked out. Theron's Crime Boss stepfather - James Caan - has some unexplained devotion to her punk boyfriend (the actual murderer) played by Juaquin Phonix, all in the name of family, yet Walberg is Caan's beloved wife's nephew and is allowed to take the fall, the script doesn't really explain why. Phoenix seems to have no relation in any way other than being Theron's beau so wtf? I guess it goes against the gangster family is everything trope so maybe that's what made it feel original to the agents and their talent. Based on a true story so maybe that's the excuse for such a lousy script getting the green light. Doesn't seem to add up but maybe I'm wrong and it's worthy of the Criterion cred. Guess I'll hit the play button again now.
- steve 1-02-2024 5:47 pm [add a comment]
Decided to try We Own The Night, halfway through and so far it's way better.
- steve 1-03-2024 2:35 am [add a comment]
Not great but servicable.
- steve 1-03-2024 3:27 am [add a comment]
considered it but finally finished up oppenheimer instead. lot of phoenix in those early gray movies.
- dave 1-03-2024 8:41 am [add a comment]
Watched Two Lovers last night, also co-written by Gray. Quite good.
- steve 1-03-2024 10:53 am [add a comment]
good start so far but i had to stop as i got anxious that he blew off lunch with the one attractive daughter of his fathers potential business partner to pursue gwyneth. this is why its easier to watch dumb shit with little to no emotional resonance. hope it works out for those crazy kids.
- dave 1-03-2024 2:53 pm [add a comment]
committing is the hard part, after that it just kinda moves along on its own and you just go through the motions.
- steve 1-03-2024 3:24 pm [add a comment]
I rewatched The Swimmer on criterion. Never disappoints. This time noticed all the abstract camera montages.
- bill 1-03-2024 9:55 am [add a comment]
Isn’t it solid montage?
- steve 1-03-2024 10:51 am [add a comment]
Kinda
- bill 1-03-2024 12:12 pm [add a comment]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandpiper
watching now on TMC
- bill 1-07-2024 2:15 pm [add a comment]