Movie time

[Ariela]

Okay, I've seen a few and will be seeing more in the next few weeks, especially now that I've moved to a town that has actually heard of having indie films in the theatres. . So here's some thoughts:

Amelie - Beautiful, gorgeous, feelgood - it's a wonderful movie. If Paris is actually like that, fuck LA - I'm moving there! It was just an incredibly sweet story. The character of Amelie had so many great layers. I just loved this movie and will probably see it again this week.

A Beautiful Mind - Very well done. Russell Crowe definitely deserved that Golden Globe, because he MADE the movie.  Jennifer Connelly is amazing too (although if Naomi Watts doesn't win the Oscar I'll eat my hat.) The thing I liked about this movie is how it analyzed mental illness and dealt with working with it without the use of psychotropic drugs. I really recommend seeing it.

In the next two weeks I plan to see "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Man Who Wasn't There," and possibly "Orange County" (so many people who shouldn't like that movie like it, so I'm intrigued.) And I FOUND A DIVX OF WAKING LIFE!!!!!!

What has everyone else seen lately?

[just a girl]

I've been seeing a few movies recently as its school holidays and there isn't much else to do in Canberra.  
I thought Amelie was FANTASTIC, one of the best foreign films i've seen. I also went to see Lantana a while ago, i dunno if it's been/going to be released in the States...?

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*(Lan-ta-na - noun. a noxious and troublesome weed with dense and spiky undergrowth, sometimes cultivated for its colourful, aromatic flowers.)*

'Lantana', directed by Ray Lawrence, is an Australian film based upon the internationally produced play 'Speaking in Tongues', written by leading Australian playwright Andrew Bovell.

This film has been described as 'an intriguing psychological drama about love, infidelity and mistrust. It's about the mistakes we make, the consequences we suffer and the attempts we make to fix things up'.

'Lantana' recently received the following awards at the 2001 AFI Awards in Melbourne:

Best Film
Best Director: Ray Lawrence
Best Actor: Anthony LaPaglia
Best Actress: Kerry Armstrong
Best Supporting Actor: Vince Colosimo
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Blake
Best Adapted Screenplay: Andrew Bovell

'Lantana' is a rare example of contemporary Australian film in the respect that it manages to entertain, suspend, and convince its viewers while maintaining an honesty and truthfulness that we see so little of in both film and television today.  It's worth a look...  ;D

[Happydoug]

i haven't seen too many theater movies... LOTR was the last one i saw, and i loved it.

the last three movies i saw on dvd/tape were TFATF, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, and Saving Silverman.  quick rundown:

TFATF is still great, just make sure you have a subwoofer or at least can crank up the volume, b/c the sounds are what really make the movie IMO.  (also the dvd has some cool xtras)

Book of Shadows was not as bad as i had expected, with it's widespread dislike from many people who have talked about it.  It was definitely not as good as the first one, but was interesting nonetheless (I didn't feel like i lost a couple hours of my life)

Saving Silverman was pretty damn funny.  I'm now officially a Jack Black fan... the guy is a 21st century John Belushi.

peace,
Happydoug

[luceluna]

well, i haven't seen Amelie or Lantana, so i can't claim to be as "cultured" as you too (), but i have seen two of Happydoug's films: TFATF of course, and Blair Witch 2. i totally agree - BW2 is not as bad as everyone made it out to be. for what it was - a standard horror movie with some cool tie-ins to a classic film - it was perfectly entertaining.

as for films i've seen myself:

Serendipity - Alex dragged me to this kicking and screaming, but i have to say it rocks! i even went and saw it again with Scarydan when i was in Sydney this week. it's tightly written and directed (from the same director behind The Mighty, a low-key film of a few years back with Gillian Anderson and Sharon Stone, amongst others), and has some lovely cinematorgraphy and a great soundtrack/score. Kate Beckingsale is radiant and charming (for those put off by her appearance in the "classic" Pearl Harbour, don't be: she's great - check out Shooting Fish, an English film from 1996, if you don't believe me).... and John Cusack, and actor i've disliked for some time, is completely likebale!

8.5/10

The One - Crap (albiet slightly amusing crap). i much prefered Jet Li's last piece of crap (the one w/ Bridget Fonda.... Kiss of the Dragon mebbe??).

5/10

;D

[ScaryDan]

on Serendipity:
yes, kate beckinsale is wonderful.
both john and joan cusack are, at first glance, bad, but really are wonderful. i love joan's voice.

and, while it was a marvellously entertaining film, it really should have been called "Inevitibility".

[Ariela]

I absolutely adore John Cuscak - he is able to put layers into even some really bad roles (such as his role in "America's Sweethearts") and blow away good ones (such as High Fidelity). I actually saw him the other night in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and that was an opportunity to see him do a role that was completely different. I highly suggest picking that up on video sometime.

Oh, and I forgot about seeing "Ocean's Eleven," which was probably the most entertaining movie I've seen in eons. Not a bit of substance to them, but sometimes that's a good thing.

If you are able to do so, see TFATF on as big of a wide-screen as you can and with some sort of surround sound. It loses a lot otherwise. It's pretty damn bad on my computer monitor.

Now I have my financial aid money, so I must decide on a DVD purchase or two to celebrate.

[Mommar]

TFATF is a pretty damn bad movie anyway.  The only slightly redeeming quality is the use of Nocturnal Transmissions at Race Wars.

[Ariela]

I saw "The Royal Tenenbaums" last night and was slightly disappointed. Great acting and I liked the detail, but the movie was too passive-agressive for me. They were either dull and depressed or acting manic and showing off their extreme quirks (including quasi-incest.) No inbetweens.

I highly suggest the special edition DVD of "Forrest Gump" - the commentaries and documentaries are almost as good as the movie. I have a feeling "Moulin Rouge" will be the same.

[[e-mail]]

ah come on, ariela you know you liked the royal T's, you just haven't realized it yet hahahaha.

is it not incest if she is adopted daughter of separated parents?

an inchasteeng Eh-tikull qweshtun

anyway i thought it was a blast. dysfunctional family black comedy, ah.... wiggy. i watched it with my sister, the scene when Margot is explaining how she lost her finger, flashback to visiting her real family in kentucky (or somewhere like that), being taught how to split wood, she's standing there smoking wearing a fur coat HAHHAAHAH. At the finger chop my sister laughed so hard that popcorn literally flew everywhere, she totally dumped the whole bucket, mostly on me. i dunno i guess we both have that dark streak in us to appreciate finding humor in some of the most serious family dramas in existence.

Orange County, now there's a film. A surfer bum kid, stuck in OC in a whacked out family he wanted to get away from, discovers reading and wants to be a writer and unsuccessfuly applies to Stanford... what a trip to watch this.

In 1993 I was a bum kid stuck in Orange County living with whacky parents I wanted to get away from, and I applied to Stanford unsuccessfully. Talk about biography film. Except I was a drummer bum not a surfer bum.

[Ariela]

joesnuff said:

ah come on, ariela you know you liked the royal T's, you just haven't realized it yet hahahaha.

is it not incest if she is adopted daughter of separated parents?

an inchasteeng Eh-tikull qweshtun

By blood it isn't true incest, of course. But it's still kinda icky, lol. And kinda complicated. If they got married, who would sit on the brides' side and who would sit on the grooms'?

And yeah, the movie's kinda grown on me the more I think of it, kinda like a fungus.   The dark humor is pretty great at times (I'll have to admit that the wood-chopping scene was a little too close to my redneck roots for me to find completely humorous, lol.) Who wouldn't love to see Owen Wilson wearing war paint and crashing his car into a house during a wedding? That was so absurd that it was hilarious. But I still maintain that it was a little too manic.

I keep meaning to see Orange County and have not managed to do it. I have a feeling I'll relate to it myself, since I also grew up in an area where everyone was slackers and never left. Harry Knowles had a story in his review of OC about how he didn't get into the University of Texas because of a similar transcript mixup. This apparently happens a lot.

Did you see Amelie, Joe? I'm interested in what you thought of it.

[joesnuff]

ah yes Amelie, not bad for the French! hahaha! i liked it. sort of a "feel good" type by the end of it all, which are not my favorites. but overall nicely stylized, quirky enough, and a good amount of humor.

the director won me early on when in Amelie's childhood the narrator explains how the father determined she has a heart condition (her lack of physical, parental contact led to a racing heart when her father did check-ups). quite clever, and probably often true. the philosophy behind that one little scene speaks volumes on the short-comings of empirical science.

but i digress. what i loved most about Amelie is her voice. it's as sweet as dulce de leche.

then there was the profound March of the Shelved Cafe Glasses Due to Surreal Vibratory Repercussions of Strong Sexual Content in the Lavatory. Classic.

recent european films i've seen lately seem to put a lot of  emphasis on little things, as a striving to bring out meaning in life's insignifigances. interesting.

that neighbor who repeatedly painted the Monet scene reminded me of my dad. during much of my childhood my dad loved to paint and re-paint this particular harbor scene of boats from his hometown (gloucester). i don't know how many times he actually painted it, definitely not once a year like in amelie, but enough times to make me think he did it as a sort of pensive meditation. trying to get everything just right and over time becoming as familiar with the scene as the back of one's hand... very interesting.

Kind of sad, too. The whole portrayal of a big city with lots of lonely people who nearly miss that chance meeting with potential soulmate. Ugh. That depresses the hell out of me to think about too much.

[luceluna]

Amelie is great, although i must confess it dragged a lil for me near the end - the curse of inevitable movies (i.e. 99% of Romances). i loved the "Amelie amused herself with questions like, 'How many couples are having an orgasm right now?'" bit - so naughty and well done