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Harvey » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:24 am wrote:If you never saw it, an extremely enjoyable historical drama/revenge tragedy, Taboo.

Seconded. "I have a use for yoooou!"

Hardy was great in another often overlooked film: Locke...



Not exactly what you'd call an 'action' movie, so I understand it might have limited appeal.

Tom Hardy is so talented and handsome it's difficult to know where to begin

'Lawless'!

that's a good one

incredible film

it's a laughably violent outlaw cartoon but John Hillcoat frames Appalachia as beautifully as others have the Wild West

the landscape in this movie is a wonderful slice of romantic Americana

bonus: screenplay by Nick Cave

also as an aside

would some enterprising whippersnapper get Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, and Gary Oldman together and into a movie that's not 'Batman' ASAP

Seconded. "I have a use for yoooou!"

Hardy was great in another often overlooked film: Locke...

Has anyone viewed the Michael Moore offering, "Planet of the Humans"? It's a piercing view of how capitalism and or industry has confused the general public with regards to "green energy." Very hard to watch and even deals with the idea that perhaps humanity's time is over/running out. I have about 20 minutes of the movie left to watch. I warn you, there's no good news in this film. Startlingly bleak. We jumped off a cliff thinking we could sew a parachute before we hit the ground. Capital distorts the purpose of labor.

Watching Mike Nichols Catch 22





Elem Klimov's Come and See





and Seftel/Cusack's War inc in quick succession, I realise these works have a great deal to say to each other.

alloneword » Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:22 pm wrote:

Harvey » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:24 am wrote:If you never saw it, an extremely enjoyable historical drama/revenge tragedy, Taboo.

Seconded. "I have a use for yoooou!"

Hardy was great in another often overlooked film: Locke...



Not exactly what you'd call an 'action' movie, so I understand it might have limited appeal.

Sooo good. I love movies that get creative with a mostly single room location(Sex Lies And Video Tape for example) The emotion is so real here, as even in smaller situations that don't include tens of millions of dollars and the future economy of a nation on the line, you can empathize with the helplessness. Also liked the bit near the end where he's all "hey you run real fast when you're drunk"(not an exact quote) I love Tom Hardy's usual big budget summer spectacles like Dark Knight Returns, Mad Max Fury Road, Inception, etc but this is probably my favorite pure acting role of his

Himiko, Masahiro Shinoda 1974.

I just rewatched Hypernormalization for the first time in almost 4 years since its 2016 release, and still am floored by it. I consider it one of Adam Curtis greatest films, if not his best documentary yet.
(720p quality download here https://archive.org/details/HyperNormalisation )

If 2016 needed a Jeff Wells blog post, 2020 definitely needs at least one more Jeff blog post which we havent gotten since 2012. However, 2020 and the next couple years is going to, if anything give endless fodder for another Adam Curtis masterpiece.

Au revoir là-haut, 2017. An enjoyable and moving picaresque with fairly RI themes.





The Black Girl, 1966. A fine and understated exploration of race and colonialism by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene. A very clear restored print is available from Criterion.





Spirit of the Beehive, 1973. A beautiful and enigmatic coming of age drama set on the Castilian plains. Recalling the films of Peter Weir, centred around a young girl coming to terms with alienation and 'the monster' in life and imagination.

Re-watched this fine 2005 film about big pharma profiting on two earlier plagues (AIDS and TB), along w/using other nation’s poor as guinea pigs and to fudge tests, corporate murder, corruption, government collusion, so forth and so on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l1lzzfpWFU

“Big pharmaceuticals are right up there with the arms dealers.”--Dr. Lorbeer

Timely viewing, considering profits to be made on Covid-19 testing, treatment, vaccines, etc...

not sure how this one flew under my radar

but has anyone seen 'A Ghost Story'?

it went from a bit twee to mildly silly and then quickly to a startling profundity which left me shattered

this is a deep and powerful film which will unquestionably reward multiple viewings

streaming on Netflix with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck in the primary roles

incredible work here

not the biggest fan of his but Affleck is brilliant acting within a very circumscribed set of parameters

and Mara is Mara in a type of meta-Mara performance

to say anything more would be to give away the surprise of this wonderful film

highly recommended

kelley » Sat Jun 20, 2020 1:24 pm wrote:not sure how this one flew under my radar

but has anyone seen 'A Ghost Story'?

it went from a bit twee to mildly silly and then quickly to a startling profundity which left me shattered

this is a deep and powerful film which will unquestionably reward multiple viewings

streaming on Netflix with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck in the primary roles

incredible work here

not the biggest fan of his but Affleck is brilliant acting within a very circumscribed set of parameters

and Mara is Mara in a type of meta-Mara performance

to say anything more would be to give away the surprise of this wonderful film

highly recommended

Yes, it is very well done.

Embrace of the Serpent is Heart of Darkness from the perspective of indigenous Americans, the third film of writer/director Ciro Guerra.





In a sense, his latest film Birds of Passage is a shattering sequel which shows its protagonists journey from Colombian tribal villagers to drug lords to the death of almost everything.





Perhaps the most urgent film in the repertoire of Terrence Malick. A masterpiece in a career littered with them, A Hidden Life is like a sequence of paintings, every single frame a work of art, consciously comparing the landscapes of Germany to the 'American Sublime' as captured by European settlers such as German painter Albert Bierstadt, or Bolton artist Thomas Moran, while Malick's rendering of the rural inhabitants is painted with the tenderness and familiarity of Bastien Lepage or Jean-François Millet. The dialogue is sparse, rugged, poetic, insightful and truthful. The characters are tormented by the weight of their choices, racked with private doubt or driven by the inertia of public office, like a carriage on a train in motion. With all of Malick's vices and virtues in full song, has there been anything quite so fully present or as intensely lived in his body of work?

A Hidden Life was indeed amazing.

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway starts off inscrutable but is very worth it. It also doesn't get any more scrutable. Really nice, oddly timeless, euro-afro surrealsploitation.