Here's an interesting list of American independent cinema. There were some films that I wasn't familiar with - others I would not have though of - and some that are actually not really that good (but arguably "important.")
When did Clint Eastwood become a more interesting filmmaker than Steven Spielberg? Was it all the way back in the 90s? Or is it just the past two decades?
I'm now caught up with Spielberg's output from the 2010s having finally watched Brudge of Spies last night, and I think BFG and maybe Tintin are the only noteworthy films he's made over the past decade. He's a pulp action movie director in desperate need of an intervention because to put all of that natural talent behind the camera toward making bland, mawkish period piece pantomimes of Capra and Hawks is a disservice to American audiences at a time when blockbusters have never been so visually inert.
Like, imagine what the guy would do with a Fast & Furious movie. Someone in Hollywood, please give Spielberg an action movie franchise he can tool around with for the next decade. _________________ Under New Management
Does Jonze count? BJM is 1999 and Her is 2013. Adaptation is 02 but BJM is the better movie, i.e., he already emerged in 99.
And I think Chris Nolan half-counts. Following is his debut but we all remember Memento, his first US release. And then Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. Not a bad decade.
Ah, but Nolan is a Brit!
And, re: Aronofsky, he's right on the cusp like Jonze is - his debut feature Pi (quite good) was in 1998. Jonze had been making music videos for most of the '90s, but he, Aronofsky, and Sofia seem to be of a similar late Gen X filmmaker cohort.
Half-counts! (FWIW, he split time growing up in UK/Illinois.)
I did not know that. Good tidbit. _________________ Under New Management
Here's an interesting list of American independent cinema. There were some films that I wasn't familiar with - others I would not have though of - and some that are actually not really that good (but arguably "important.")
“Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection” offers filmmakers in the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup an invitation to opt in to take part in this online film festival, which will play exclusively on Prime Video in the U.S. for 10-days. The one-time event will be available in front of the Prime Video paywall and free to all audiences around the country, with or without an Amazon Prime membership, all that is needed is a free Amazon account.
Stay tuned to SXSW for more information coming soon. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for the latest SX news
_________________ "Suck it up. Don't be a baby. Do your job." - Kobe Bryant
“Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection” offers filmmakers in the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup an invitation to opt in to take part in this online film festival, which will play exclusively on Prime Video in the U.S. for 10-days. The one-time event will be available in front of the Prime Video paywall and free to all audiences around the country, with or without an Amazon Prime membership, all that is needed is a free Amazon account.
Stay tuned to SXSW for more information coming soon. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for the latest SX news
- I watched this truncated, butchered US theatrical version and then downloaded and watched an HD reconstituted version that was initially released in Europe. Sadly, the HD version had some sound sync and lagging issues, so my viewing experiences of Possession so far have been suboptimal.
- This is a holy grail movie for hipster film aficionados. I can see why. If I had seen it at age 17, it would probably be one of my favorite movies. As is, I think it's quite excellent and a singular vision worth watching. So it came very close to living up to the sky high expectations.
- This is the real "marriage story." Lovecraftian (bleep) monsters, doppelgangers, shoot outs, toilet drownings, an alien, empty West Berlin - this feels like the agonizing disorienting open wound of a relationship falling apart and Sam Neill and especially Isabelle Adjani give all time performances selling the fever dream. _________________ Under New Management
If you can track it down, Perfume: Story of a Murderer (2006) has one helluva social distancing sequence. An all-timer of self-quarantines.
Also an all-timer outbreak movie that posits maybe humans shouldn't associate with one another at all: Ebola Syndrome (1996).
This is a notoriously nasty Category III Hong Kong flick, so make sure to not watch it on a work laptop:
George Romero's The Crazies (1973) - a critical and commercial flop on its release, it gained a bit of cult status in the 80s and 90s, but only seems to have received a positive critical reassessment over the past decade.
Both a perfect encapsulation of Nixon-era paranoia and a great pandemic watch now, The Crazies is one of Romero's best, a chaotic story about a secret military bioweapon accidentally leaked into a small Pennsylvania town after an airplane crash the government tries to keep quiet. But the virus turns infected people into raging psychopaths who eventually do harm to themselves or others or are driven insane - you can see the influence on a number of later films, but especially 28 Days Later. The military descends to quarantine the town too late, there's constant miscommunication, bungled timelines, and resource delays all while faceless soldiers in gas masks and hazmat suits try to enforce a quarantine perimeter and keep the peace through increasingly violent and eventuality outright homicidal means.
The clever central conceit is that those who are infected show no outward physical signs instead gradually mentally degrading, but under the stress of the situation and given fear of government overreach among a well-armed rural population who's infected and who's just fearful become indistinguishable in the chaos. Everything here is on the nose reflecting 1970s touchstone events from the Kent State shooting to the local priest lighting himself on fire all against the threatening backdrop of bureaucratic incompetence and indifference, a justified public distrust of the government, and a trigger happy, faceless military violently bungling their "rescue" efforts of a local population, this is a bleak, nasty social satire you'd come to expect from Romero.
It's his first color film, the acting is super rough even for a Romero film, most of the characters are bland non-entities, the scale of the production clearly strained the picture as the FX quality can vary greatly from shot to shot even in the same scene, but I still think some of the tense action setpieces, some of the thoughtful, idiosyncratic, humane touches the director adds, the attention to detail when it comes to a viral contagion (super rare in movies before this), and the overall grimy, angry, wry tone really elevate lThe Crazies into the upper echelon of Romero's work. Check it out on Prime. _________________ Under New Management
Stalker was my first Tarkovsky so it always has a soft spot in my heart and a confused nest in my brain. But The Mirror kicks so much butt - lovely, lovely film. _________________ Under New Management
Joined: 10 Jul 2009 Posts: 12203 Location: Bay Area
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:14 pm Post subject:
Baron Von Humongous wrote:
Stalker was my first Tarkovsky so it always has a soft spot in my heart and a confused nest in my brain. But The Mirror kicks so much butt - lovely, lovely film.
A movie I hated as a teenage kid, which I adore now. Gallo takes every twee trope of '90s Sundance darlings and mixes it in a blender with his toxic waste narcissism to make one of the best American films of its era. Gallo threw everything against the wall, made insane choice after insane choice, and made it all work in his directorial debut.
Spoiler alert for a 22-year-old movie, but look at this genius (NSFW): _________________ Under New Management
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