one-armed dwarf Posted October 2, 2024 Share Posted October 2, 2024 13 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said: You should watch the Happiness with Philip Seymour Hoffman in. Not that it's a horror, it's just a great film I'm pretty sure that is the film I watched, unless there's another? The film I watched is about a pedophile played by Dylan Baker, and PSH is an isolated weirdo jerking off on the phone the whole time. It frames things like a sitcom at times, even though it's about things that are really bleak. Lara Flynn Boyle is also in it and very good, I haven't really seen her in anything other than Twin Peaks. And, uh, Baby's Day Out I thought the acting was really good, especially by Dylan Baker. Talk about a challenging role, apparently he got it cause the director had so many rejections from A list, B list all the way down to who knows what list. But it turned out he could inhabit a role that nobody else wanted to 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted October 2, 2024 Share Posted October 2, 2024 16 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said: Lara Flynn Boyle is also in it and very good, I haven't really seen her in anything other than Twin Peaks. And, uh, Baby's Day Out 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted October 2, 2024 Share Posted October 2, 2024 1 hour ago, one-armed dwarf said: I'm pretty sure that is the film I watched, unless there's another? The film I watched is about a pedophile played by Dylan Baker, and PSH is an isolated weirdo jerking off on the phone the whole time. It frames things like a sitcom at times, even though it's about things that are really bleak. Lara Flynn Boyle is also in it and very good, I haven't really seen her in anything other than Twin Peaks. And, uh, Baby's Day Out I thought the acting was really good, especially by Dylan Baker. Talk about a challenging role, apparently he got it cause the director had so many rejections from A list, B list all the way down to who knows what list. But it turned out he could inhabit a role that nobody else wanted to Ah, I misread your post, I thought you were saying you'd watched a horror film. Happiness is an odd film because it's splits people. Obviously there's people who hate it, but some find it a hard watch, but I'm in the group that thinks it's really funny. Like PSH talking a good game and not being able to deliver. A young Jared Harris is great in it too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 2, 2024 Share Posted October 2, 2024 Yeah, sorry, I wrote it weird cause I was hoping I might trick people into watching it. Not that it would be a 'trick' necessarily, its a great film but once you tell people what it's about you'd lose them. I got it on the new 4k Criterion that came out, tho the special features are a bit on the thin side, just some interviews. There was some news earlier in the week about Daniel Day Lewis coming out of retirement. I don't know why we called him our greatest actor when we had PSH. He can play these oddballs or narcissists or whatever kinda outsider gets given to him, but generate a ton of empathy for these characters we might prefer not to see. And he could do more broad comedy just as well, and play a villain in a blockbuster. But his best role might be Boogie Nights. Maybe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 4, 2024 Share Posted October 4, 2024 I watched Vampyr (1932) a few days ago, which is a creepy, dreamy film about a ghostly vampire which intrudes on a German village. The film is great, I find it a little hard to describe cause it feels like a dream which you barely remember (probably cause your soul is in mortal combat with scary vampire ghosts), and it feels like I'm missing so much context to really get what's going on with it. Also for an old film it actually does manage to be somewhat scary and grim, which is something you can't always expect with things this old But it has this amazing commentary track with Guillermo Del Toro I listened to after, which I can't summarise but it's so deep and informative on the horror innovations around this time, the religious subtext and whatnot, this idea of 'memento mori' death is inevitable but the soul is immortal and its relation to the story, and he's really funny ("here comes a fat mexican into your house to talk to you about vampires" he says). It's started me looking to see what other movies he's given commentary on. The great reviews SH2 remake has gotten has reminded me how sad I am we'll never see what he would have contributed to PT, fuck sake man I'll never get over that one I think 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 Watched Love Lies Bleeding yesterday, that Rose Glass movie starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian that got some buzz (at least in my bubble) earlier this year. I think it's called a romantic thriller officially, which is fine as a description. Stewart's character handles the day-to-day business of a gym and falls in love with a new regular (O'Brian), but then some stuff happens, people die, and Stewart's father, played in a very ominous and threatening fashion by Ed Harris seems to be a key link between everything. I rather enjoyed it. It's not as 'out there' as their interviews make you believe. In fact I'd say outside of a few metaphorical visualisations it's a pretty straightfoward storyline up until the last quarter. Visually it has a really gritty and grounded style, it looks very 80s without the usual Hollywood fluff like neon signs and leopard print clothes. The acting is strong across the board, with O'Brian being my favourite I think, especially as I haven't seen her in challenging roles like this before. The ending left me a bit flabbergasted, not quite sure if that was all to be taken at face value or just a visual representation of its central themes. Or maybe both. Funnily enough it reminded me a bit of History of Violence, which also starred Harris. It has a very different tone and message, but there's some overlapping here I think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 That one's on my radar, not sure if I want to grab it on blu ray or just stream it though. Have you seen Saint Maud by the same director? Very different type of film I imagine cause it's more psychosexual horror with religious shit in it rather than pulpy neo noir, which I think LLB is (based from trailers anyway) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 I remember Stewart mentioning it as the reason as to why she signed up for this, but I haven't seen it as I usually stay away from horror movies. Not really my world, it's a type of viewing experience that makes me uncomfortable (I guess that's by design, but, well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 "Saint Maud" was way more a psychological thriller than a horror (if that makes any difference to persuade you). Mark Kermode gave it a 5* Review back in 2020 - I thought it was just okay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 There's no jump scares, just gruesome bits Was reading on wikipedia that she took inspo from Taxi Driver for it, which is a thing I never thought about but it makes a lot of sense. It's like Taxi Driver but what if a nun I mean, ok it's not quite that. But it's more about alienation really, someone who's a bit lost in life. The horror is more in themes and mood rather than visceral shock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted October 10, 2024 Share Posted October 10, 2024 Ah, who knows, maybe I'll be in a particularly anti-pussy mood around Halloween and will give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted October 11, 2024 Share Posted October 11, 2024 Watched the recent Dungeons & Dragons movie the other day, the Chris Pine one. I'm not exactly sure why but up until the moment I started it I was convinced it was one of those meta 4th wall movies where people play the game and narrate from the off. Which is the reason I haven't watched it up until now because I have zero trust in modern Hollywood to pull that trope off in an enjoyable fashion. Not sure if the marketing failed here or if I'm just dumb. Maybe a bit of both. Anyway, I think this was pretty solid. It's obviously nothing deep or thought-provoking, but it's also fairly inoffensive and the 'Marvel humour' is thankfully mostly limited to a couple of scenes, and some jokes actually made me laugh quite a bit. I'm mostly passively familiar with the whole D&D universe through Bioware's history, but it was both cool and a bit surreal to hear all those names like Neverwinter, Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate spoken out loud. Characters and story are all very run-of-the-mill, but I think that's fine, it just wants to be a fun adventure movie. I do wish Sophia Lillis' character had a bit more depth or nuance to her, but I suppose they didn't want to give the shapeshifter more screentime to avoid her upstaging everyone else. Considering it did rather poorly at the box office, I wonder if its producers and the marketing team kicked themselves when BG3 came out and became a huge hit. Not sure how much influence a game like that would have had on a big Hollywood release, but it surely would have done better in a world more accustomed to hearing the words Baldur's Gate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 yeah, the Dungeons and Dragons movie is surprisingly good, I enjoyed it quite a lot I also really enjoyed Saint Maud. Which is very different, but coincidentally I think I watched them at around the same time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 14, 2024 Share Posted October 14, 2024 Terrifier (2016), Art the Clown has sort of become the mascot of Halloween the past few years, so I had to watch this and know what it was. I think it starts off well enough in the pizza shop scenes and it's not hard to see why the mime design has caught on in the zeitgeist like it has. It's very repetitive though, some of the characters get a good bit of screen time but a lot of them feel like bowling pins set up and knocked down in the same scene, which takes like 5 minutes of chopping, sawing, ripping and eyeball puncturing usually. I like a good slasher but I don't think this is one of them, you want the violence to be shocking and the story exciting, not repetitive and boring*. It's not a good sign if a 1hr 24min film has you checking how much time is left. As said tho, I do like the mime character design. Dude's just misunderstood, it's all good fun to him. *not to say that there aren't yuck scenes, there certainly are especially one in particular involving a rusty hacksaw --- edit Variety have a top 100 list of horrors. Solid picks on here with good 'variety' in eras and subgenres https://variety.com/lists/best-horror-movies-of-all-time/ https://letterboxd.com/anaekasm/list/varietys-the-100-best-horror-movies-of-all/ Be careful with some of these recommendations tho, or be brave and just pick Salo to watch with the family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted October 14, 2024 Share Posted October 14, 2024 I think the D&D movie sort of demonstrated how out of touch Hollywood is with popular culture. They clearly saw an uplift in public interest in D&D (helped by COVID, Stranger Things & Critical Role) but couldn't of course replicate any of the flexibility and organic nature of TTRPGs in movie constrained by a set script & cast actors. So as much as it appealed to some, it turned off many. I was hugely surprised there wasn't any linkage to BG3 - even perhaps a DLC pre-generated party using the movie characters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted October 15, 2024 Share Posted October 15, 2024 21 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said: Terrifier (2016), Art the Clown has sort of become the mascot of Halloween the past few years, so I had to watch this and know what it was. I think it starts off well enough in the pizza shop scenes and it's not hard to see why the mime design has caught on in the zeitgeist like it has. It's very repetitive though, some of the characters get a good bit of screen time but a lot of them feel like bowling pins set up and knocked down in the same scene, which takes like 5 minutes of chopping, sawing, ripping and eyeball puncturing usually. I like a good slasher but I don't think this is one of them, you want the violence to be shocking and the story exciting, not repetitive and boring*. It's not a good sign if a 1hr 24min film has you checking how much time is left. As said tho, I do like the mime character design. Dude's just misunderstood, it's all good fun to him. *not to say that there aren't yuck scenes, there certainly are especially one in particular involving a rusty hacksaw --- edit Variety have a top 100 list of horrors. Solid picks on here with good 'variety' in eras and subgenres https://variety.com/lists/best-horror-movies-of-all-time/ https://letterboxd.com/anaekasm/list/varietys-the-100-best-horror-movies-of-all/ Be careful with some of these recommendations tho, or be brave and just pick Salo to watch with the family I watched Terrifier last night for similar reasons, feels like it's well liked so time to see if its any good. And I'm not sure It's coloured in a way that's inspired by 70s exploitation horror, but it doesn't really feel like it. I really liked the 2 girls at the start as characters, but as you said, some of the others that pop up just have nothing to them, they're just fodder Art isn't a terrible villain, but more as the film goes on, at the start he seems piss wet, almost like it's his first day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 15, 2024 Share Posted October 15, 2024 The film making has no sauce either, nothing on the level of that cool tracking dolly shot in Evil Dead. I imagine it's hitting the way it is partly cause of a younger crowd who's mostly being getting PG-13 horror or A24 stuff their whole life. So this sort of feels like the pendulum swinging back a bit At the same time I don't want to be too sniffy about it considering the budget it's on, and there are sequels that probably improve things. Also the rawness of how it's made is sort of its appeal. I did like how Spoiler they just kill the main character 50 minutes in, and she's the only one that gets a really basic, anti-climactic death. Kinda like "im fucking bored of you now, had enough, moving on" from Art. I have I think 5 days of a Paramount+ trial to see if I want to watch the sequel, may or may not depending if I want a palette cleanser from the other stuff I watch. But anyway yeah, I know what it is now and glad to have seen it at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted October 15, 2024 Share Posted October 15, 2024 2 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said: younger crowd who's mostly being getting PG-13 horror or A24 stuff their whole life. I wonder this. I watched these a while ago and thought they were quite tame relative to the reputation they have to be honest. As for the actual films, they’re the definition of ok. I’ll still watch the 3rd when it comes to streaming. So they’re good enough for me to do that at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted October 15, 2024 Share Posted October 15, 2024 The first 2 are on Prime currently if you want to save the Paramount sub 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted October 15, 2024 Share Posted October 15, 2024 Oh right, there it is. Might try and catch something else on P+ before it goes then Interesting that Spongebob Squarepants is on the 'what customers watched next' tab, which suggests my theory of Terrifier being for younger people could be correct 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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