weekly (month so far for me) film viewing post

[murdermystery]

So, my screening log (in terms of note-taking) is actually an entire year behind now, but since I have this idea that once my two "fiction" books come out I'm going to actually write a "film book," I figure it'd be good discipline if I actually start doing this again, and with the minor resurgence here, hyg

Comments

[danschank]

It was simultaneously brilliant, like fucking transcendent, and insufferably boring at the same time.

yes that's kinda his deal... glad you enjoyed it... i actually don't think tarr's aesthetics-of-dread approach is all that different from, say, jean rollin's in the end. only less sexy.

[danschank]

i'm gonna use this comments thread to talk about tv, since i've been watching a lot of it:

girls: have you guys been following the controversy about this? i'm glad to see a real discussion about diversity and the default status of NYC-twentysomethings as the emblems of all experiences everywhere, but i think this show is getting an unfair smackdown prematurely. the first episode wasn't bad - dunham has a knack for a certain kind of physical comedy, and her breed of mumblecore avoids the bullshit smugness/sincerity dichotomy of those films at their worst (see young adult for an annoying recent example). better still, she extends the best parts of tiny furniture, imo... namely the way young women are pressured into enduring the weird sexual appetites of oblivious, insensitive men. dunham is good at making sex uncomfortable without condeming it outright, and she has a knack for writing male characters that suck without being capital-A-asshole-cartoons that rarely exist in real life

[danschank]

justified: on a brighter note, this show is finding its stride. i'm only about halfway through the third season, but it's shaping up to be interesting and complex. when it began, justified had the opposite problem of walking dead, lots of good characters (boyd crowder especially)... not a particularly compelling atmosphere. the single-story-arc structure can dumb it down from time to time as well, but they seem to be moving away from it as the show finds an audience. timothy olyphant is a better actor than he was on deadwood - more suited to a classically "western" role than the revisionism of deadwood. there's an easy-breezy quality to justified that reminds me of the old westerns that mann, boetticher and co. used to make; the elmore leonard framework gives this extra support. season two has one of the most memorable pseudo-villains in recent memory and season three is making strikingly good use of the dude who played bubba in forrest gump!

the good wife: more and more, i'm coming to love this show. it has its faults - it's

[glazomaniac]

i just downloaded all of justified. i'm-a give ti a whirl soon enough.

[danschank]

i'm all but certain you'll like it. especially season two onward. the first season is kinda hit or miss for a while.

[glazomaniac]

crash: somehow, i've become a fan of everything cronenberg does without actually being a fanatic. i find the sensation unsettling, as i usually go for fanaticism. anyway, i watched this with a room full of people, and the tangible discomfort most of them experienced definitely heightened my enjoyment of the movie.

death race 2000: there's a certain campy style from somewhere between '65 and '85 that i cannot get enough of. barbarella is my favorite of these, but death race 2000 is a strong contender. it's the way it embraces its absurdity and brings it back around to being somehow believable, funny, and a lot of fun.

pather panchali: this has been sitting on my computer for over a year now. i have the next two films in the trilogy waiting. after hearing so much about how great it was, i wasn't quite as impressed as i expected to be. i liked the sort of languid feel it had, though.

cranes are flying: well, that was heartbreaking

[dominoparker]

Death Race 2000 has possibly the best pun ever captured on film.

[glazomaniac]

it's escaping me at the moment. what part?

[discotarantula]

hand grenade.

[bad_juice]

glad you got to see Detention before it went away forever.

i got my friend to drive me up to Seattle so i could go see it. was a super fun road trip even if i didn't love the movie as much as i hoped to.