Seen any good movies lately? - Films you MUST see

[mjp]

Finally saw Juno yesterday. Looks like Ellen Page has arrived as a major young talent for years to come.

Liked Juno a lot but would reserve comment on the young actor until I see her in a role where she's doing more than channeling a young Janeane Garofalo...

 

[chicagoburgers]

someone mentioned jodorowsky.
great filmmaker, weird stuff.
if you found El Topo interesting, try Santa Sangre. Equally weird, but more watchable with less religious overtones.
His other film I've seen, Holy Mountain, is one of those movies that is more over-the-top than El Topo, and you'd envision
it playing on a big screen without sound at some underground psychedelic party behind a Jefferson Airplane live show circa '68.

anyhow. my 2 cents.
here' s a dozen or so mostly mainstream movies I've rewatched within the last year and they get better every time.
if any ya'll haven't seen these, throw "em in the netflix queue and enjoy:
- someone mentioned Deadwood. Other incredible mini-series to invest in (Band of Brothers, Six Feet Under, Dexter)
- Big Lebowski (best movie ever)
- Help (the Beatles) - just released on dvd
- Boogie Nights
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
- Mallrats
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Last Detail
- Raising Arizona
- Mean Streets
- Hard Core Logo
- Jackie Brown
- Requiem for a Dream
- Amelie

 

[Father Luke]

hey chronic, remember that youtube video you posted ages ago called '', with the two evil kids and the rabbit? the director of that has just released a new short film:

http://ideas.veer.com/features/controlmaster/

good eye Ruby.

 

[number6horse]

Liked Juno a lot but would reserve comment on the young actor until I see her in a role where she's doing more than channeling a young Janeane Garofalo...

I see the Garafolo comparison, but have to say she is quite a bit ahead of Garafolo already. Especially in the close-up, vulnerable scenes (don't want to detail them here and spoil the film). I haven't seen every one of J.G.'s performances, but the ones I have seen didn't have the subtlety and nuance like this one did.

 

[chronic]

hey chronic, remember that youtube video you posted ages ago called '', with the two evil kids and the rabbit? the director of that has just released a new short film:

http://ideas.veer.com/features/controlmaster/

Thank you Rubyred. I probably wouldn't have seen this if you hadn't posted it. Not as creepy as Rabbit, but very entertaining.

 

[justine]

jordan and i loved 'rabbit' so much i bought the dvd.

 

[jmoshea]

I just filled my new Netflix queue and used many recommmendations from this thread...

First up is Citizen Kane (not sure if it was mentioned here or not). I have heard so much about it and it is constantly discussed as one of the best of all time...I figure I might as well finally see it. I have no expectations one way or the other.

Here's my list so far:

1) Citizen Kane
2) I'm Not There
3) Touch of Evil
4) Brian Regan: Standing Up
5) The Third Man
6) Shane McGowan: If I Should Fall From Grace
7) The Charles Bukowski Tapes: Disc 1
8) The Charles Bukowski Tapes: Disc 2
9) Cashback
10)Vincent: Series 1: Disc 1
11)Vincent: Series 1: Disc 2
12)Down by Law
13)The Proposition
14)You're Gonna Miss Me


of course, some that I really want to see are not available:

The Bank Job
Barfly
Killer of Sheep

 

[justine]

short film by miranda july:

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Miranda July is weird, but in a good way. I like the thought provoking adventures she creates. I like her so I am weird too.

Thank you Ruby

 

[mjp]

, which is one of the most inventive uses of a site I've ever seen. And I've seen every web site!

Well, it feels like it sometimes.

 

[CarversDog]

"Factotum" is hardly a disappointment.

Saw "Michael Clayton" last night; not nearly as complex a plot as I was led to believe. Tom Wilkinson's character reminded me quite a bit of Peter Finch's mad newsman Howard Beale in "Network" and Clayton (Clooney) was not too dissimilar to William Holden's Max Schumacker -- otherwise, a damn engaging movie.

 

[mjp]

Oh my, oh my, oh my - saw God Grew Tired of Us last night:

After raising themselves in the desert along with thousands of other parentless "lost boys," Sudanese refugees John, Daniel and Panther have found their way to America, where they experience electricity, running water and supermarkets for the first time. Capturing their wonder at things Westerners take for granted, this documentary, an award winner at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, paints an intimate portrait of strangers in a strange land.

This movie doesn't get into the Sudan/Darfur/political/religious/genocide issue too deeply, it's just the story of the thousands of young boys who were orphaned when things started getting really ugly in Sudan. Almost 30,000 of them banded together and walked to Ethiopia, where they were safe for a while, until Ethiopia's government changed/collapsed in the early 1990's. Then they walked to Kenya! 1000 miles these kids walked. And they've been behind barbed wire fences in Kenya ever since. They can't go back to Sudan because they are afraid (for good reason) that they will be killed.

So different countries take a handful of them out of these camps and place them in government and charity sponsored homes, help them get jobs, go to school, etc. Watching them go from the dry Northern plains of Kenya to Philadelphia and New York is really something. This one really brings home the disparity in the world. Watching it will fuck you up.

--

The walking-through-the-desert brought to mind another great, powerful movie called Rabbit-Proof Fence. I think I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Highly recommended, though also very gut-wrenching.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

And I watched Super Bad It will fuck you up too. It is scary that there are people like that in the world, well a bunch of kids like that in California anyway.

 

[hank solo]

Best thing I heard about Superbad, UK movie critic Mark Kermode, who is always very dry anyway, said that it was the first movie he'd seen where the title was all you needed if you had to write a review. Or something like that :p

 

[jmoshea]

 

[CarversDog]

Let me know what you think of Citizen Kane, JM. For my money, it's the most over-rated, pretentious film in American cinema (Aldous Huxley's fictional portrayal of William Randolph Hearst in After Many A Summer Dies The Swan is far superior); Touch of Evil, on the other hand, is just brilliant if you can overlook Charlton Heston's ridiculous brown-skinned make-up.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

if you can overlook Charlton Heston's ridiculous brown-skinned make-up.

Well, we needn't overlook it anymore now need we? ;)

Charlton Heston has to be the most overrated actor ever. His politics didn't help much either, but I didn't mention that, did I? :cool:

 

[hoochmonkey9]

Oh my, oh my, oh my - saw God Grew Tired of Us last night:

After raising themselves in the desert along with thousands of other parentless "lost boys," Sudanese refugees John, Daniel and Panther have found their way to America, where they experience electricity, running water and supermarkets for the first time. Capturing their wonder at things Westerners take for granted, this documentary, an award winner at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, paints an intimate portrait of strangers in a strange land.

This movie doesn't get into the Sudan/Darfur/political/religious/genocide issue too deeply, it's just the story of the thousands of young boys who were orphaned when things started getting really ugly in Sudan. Almost 30,000 of them banded together and walked to Ethiopia, where they were safe for a while, until Ethiopia's government changed/collapsed in the early 1990's. Then they walked to Kenya! 1000 miles these kids walked. And they've been behind barbed wire fences in Kenya ever since. They can't go back to Sudan because they are afraid (for good reason) that they will be killed.

So different countries take a handful of them out of these camps and place them in government and charity sponsored homes, help them get jobs, go to school, etc. Watching them go from the dry Northern plains of Kenya to Philadelphia and New York is really something. This one really brings home the disparity in the world. Watching it will fuck you up.

--

The walking-through-the-desert brought to mind another great, powerful movie called Rabbit-Proof Fence. I think I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Highly recommended, though also very gut-wrenching.

Dave Eggers wrote a book on this subject.

I bought it and read 100 pages or so, then put it down.

I'll try it again. and I'll search out the movies also.

 

[mjp]

I think this is a case where hearing the people speak brings the issue home much more than reading about it could. The movie is about three of the "lost boys" - it doesn't really go into politics or the reasons behind the war there. Just the effect on one section of the Sudanese population.

 

[Father Luke]

 

[Spinbowler]

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

 

[number6horse]

Gone Baby Gone

 

[Gerard K H Love]

OK not bad.

 

[CarversDog]

There Will Be Blood

Excellent

 

[Rob.]

Gone Baby Gone

I thought it was over after the quarry scene, and went to sleep. My wife tells me that something else happened.

I hate the title.

I saw Wrist Cutters last night. It's alright. Not as subversive as I had imagined.

 

[harrystuped]

clerks 2

:)

 

[chronic]

Not exactly a movie but a 2 hour Frontline documentary titled Storm Over Everest about three climbing teams on an ill-fated 1996 trip to the summit, as told by several of the people who were trapped in a sudden severe storm between the summit and camp. Follow the link for more info and/or to watch the entire film on pbs.org. The video quality is pretty good in full-screen mode with a decent monitor.

Recommended (and it's free).

 

[planahea]

rubyred & mjp, i loved the miranda july sites. i never heard of her before, what a discovery, thanks for posting them.

 

[justine]

i should watch 'me and you and everyone we know' again.

i saw 'cloverfield' and 'i am legend' today. i read WAY too much about the first one so i already knew everything that would happen. the will smith movie was good - for its genre - with a typical hollywood ending. but two semi-horror/catastrophe movies in a row was really way too much for me.

 

[number6horse]

I thought it was over after the quarry scene, and went to sleep. My wife tells me that something else happened.

I hate the title.

I saw Wrist Cutters last night. It's alright. Not as subversive as I had imagined.

Yeah - the plot totally somersaulted off that quarry cliff, too. I was entertained but never amazed at the film itself and how it unraveled. Some good surprises and events happened, but I wasn't truly moved. A good script, but maybe too smart for its own good, I thought.