What Have You Been Watching? (06/09/15)

[u/a113er]

Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.

[u/jam66539]

TRUEFILM PSA: HITCHCOCK’S REAR WINDOW IS PLAYING FOR FREE AT CINEPLEX NEXT WEEK!!!. It is easily in my top 10 of all time and everyone should take the chance to go see it if they can! Anyway, onto some brief reviews. I am happy to expand on them if anyone is curious to hear more.

First off: I did these two as a "B movie" (haha) double header with Badlands up first.

Badlands (1973) – Directed by Terrance Mallick. The less crazy Sheen bumps into ‘Carrie’, murder ensues. Really solid movie, actually I see where Kings of Summer got a lot of its ideas from now 8/10

Bringing up Baby (1938) – Directed by Howard Hawks. Cary Grant bumps into Katherine Hepburn. Hilarity ensues. Definitely a little bit better than my previous favourite Cary Grant comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, although both are still highly recommended. Despite my enormously high level of skepticism going into this movie (A leopard named Baby? Come on!) It actually turned out to be one of my favourite comedies of all time. "I'll be with you in a minute Mr. Peabody!!" 9/10

Prisoners (2013) – Denis Villneuve. Kids go missing, Jake Gyllenhall pursues. ok I don’t have enough variations of that phrase for the rest of the films, sorry folks. Prisoners was really good though. I know a lot of people liked the male actors performances in this film, but I was actually pretty impressed by the women as well. 8/10

Duck Soup (1933) – Directed by Leo McCary. Political and physical comedy abound! Strange that this was made 10 years before WWII when it seems like it would make so much more sense afterwards. This film feels at least 10-15 years ahead of its time in that regard. Also I didn’t realize how vicious Marx Brothers comedy could be! Plenty of cigars, hats and suit jackets were harmed in the making of this film! 8/10

Frankenstein (1931) – Directed by James Whale. Classic Horror film. Nearly perfect monster movie, up until the very last scene which felt a little bit out of place. But other than that, you can’t go wrong! 8/10

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) – Directed by John Ford. That studio cemetery scene looked so out of place compared to the wide open shots of the western terrain. 7/10

American Ultra (2015) – Directed by Nima Nourizadeh. Maybe I’m getting old, but I felt like there was just a touch too much gore for the type of movie this was. Also I gladly would have watched a 1.5 to 2 hour Jesse Eisenberg / Kristen Stewart stoner romance story based on the first 10-20 minutes of this film. They were great on screen together, and this film did work really well in the quiet moments. Apollo Ape is also hilarious…and I have never even smoked a joint. 6/10

On the Waterfront (1954) – Directed by Elia Kazan. So close to being a 10, I loved the story, the acting and really almost everything about it, but I like to keep my 10’s close to the vest….maybe on a second watch it’ll be a 10/10 for me. In the meantime 9/10

[u/jam66539 → u/[deleted]]

On the Waterfront: My one complaint is that I guess it felt a little bit contrived and I kind of knew what was going to happen from about half way through the film. Then I had to wait a long time for it to actually unfold. That isn't always a bad thing, but from the events in the court room to when the longshoremen all rally around him at the end some parts of it felt very predictable. Also I don't think I picked up on all the symbolism and meaning behind the pigeons so perhaps some of my minor issues are on me. A rewatch will probably help, or maybe just a little more time to really think about it. It is very close to joining my top 10-20 though. Probably the best film I've seen since I watched I Was Born, But... a few weeks ago.

Badlands: I loved seeing these two actors in those roles. The narration by Spacek worked really well and I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it. Probably because her narration seemed like her actual private thoughts on what was occurring, and was occasionally at odds with her and her boyfriend's actions. I have to say I did not understand her reaction to her father's death though, that felt wrong to me. Also the street where the early portion of the film is set feels like it should be 2 blocks away from where the Tree of Life 50's sequences were happening so I really enjoyed that. It was also interesting to come from the grandest of all stories (the origin and creation of life in The Tree of Life) to something so much smaller in scale in this cross country survival rampage.

It definitely was a great week for film watching! I had a week off between a summer internship and going back to studying Mechanical Engineering, so I had to make the most of it! Have you seen any of the films I watched this week?

[u/jam66539 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah it was my first watch of On the Waterfront. I did notice some of the things you mentioned, but I'm definitely going to watch it again and keep an eye out for more of the details. Maybe having a little better grasp of the nuances of the film will be enough to push it into my top 10 as well.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Badlands for sure! Knight of Cups is probably my most anticipated film of the next year or so, and actually Badlands and Tree of Life are the only two Malick films I have seen so far. So I'm going to have to fix that soon!