Upcoming Films of Interest

[Lancemc]

YouTube - ‪Melancholia - EPK 4 -Official Trailer‬‏

A bunch more here:
IMDb :: Boards :: Melancholia (2011) :: New Interviews and Clips

All the clips in HD too. Looks remarkable.

 

[powerhour24]

Damn you von Trier for getting me interested in a film of yours again, !!. And making us wait until November, for shame!!

 

[LMP]

He's kind of an ass, yeah, and has a very particular taste, but he's an intelligent writer most of the time.

Agreed. Same goes for Jonathan Rosenbaum, though I find him to be a less pedantic writer, even if his tastes are often more high-brow.

 

[lazarus]

Rosenbaum is a great writer. And he's far more open to things than Hoberman. He unfortunately has his biases (doesn't like the Coens, Woody Allen, or Soderbergh), but I think if you look at his Top 10 lists over the years you'd be surprised. And his "alternate AFI 100" list is damned awesome:

(scroll down, though the essay itself is great as well)

List-o-Mania | Movie Feature | Chicago Reader

 

[Lancemc]

I've never gotten the impression Rosenbaum was very biased about anything. I'm not disliking the Coens or Woody Allen qualifies.

 

[lazarus]

I just meant bias in terms of not taking each film of certain directors on their own merits, and bringing in too much baggage.

 

[LMP]

Rosenbaum is a great writer. And he's far more open to things than Hoberman. He unfortunately has his biases (doesn't like the Coens, Woody Allen, or Soderbergh), but I think if you look at his Top 10 lists over the years you'd be surprised. And his "alternate AFI 100" list is damned awesome:

(scroll down, though the essay itself is great as well)

List-o-Mania | Movie Feature | Chicago Reader

I've read that before. He dislikes most of Spielberg's work until you get to the 2000s as well, but I'm sure that you're all for that. I'd like to read his books at some point.

Jim Emerson and Dave Kehr are two other favorites of mine.

 

[Lancemc]

This has been making the festival rounds for a good while now. Hopefully it makes it out this year some time here.

YouTube - ‪Turkish Cinema - Kosmos (Cosmos) by Reha Erdem - Golden Orange 2009‬‏

Also yeah, despite being only lukewarm to outright hostile respectively to Refn's Bronson and Valhalla Rising, Drive is starting to appeal to me. Mainly this second clip that does it:

YouTube - ‪Drive Movie Clip "Ride Home" Official (HD)‬‏

 

[powerhour24]

Agreed Bronson & Valhalla Rising were stylish nightmares, but Refn has certainly showed himself adept at working with actors and dark material in the Pusher trilogy, the second Drive was announced I was hoping it'd be his chance to make a truly coherent and mature project, and from the reviews it seems like he has. Plus that cast is top class.

 

[LMP]

Anything that draws comparisons to Walter Hill or early Michael Mann catches my attention.

 

[Lancemc]

If only it were drawing comparisons to Walter Hill and contemporary Michael Mann.

 

[lazarus]

Thief is a great film.

Manhunter is uneven and painfully dated, but it's still better than Silence of the Lambs.

 

[LMP]

Thief is a great film.

Manhunter is uneven and painfully dated, but it's still better than Silence of the Lambs.

This.

 

[Lancemc]

I'm not really all that crazy for anything pre-Heat anymore, but those two are certainly still really enjoyable.

 

[LMP]

Have either of you seen The Keep?

 

[Lancemc]

Have either of you seen The Keep?

I made it about half an hour before turning off my tv in shame.

 

[LMP]

It's not very good, but like Mann's other films, has a killer climax.

 

[powerhour24]

I've always heard it was terrible, so despite my love of Michael Mann I've never watched it.

I dig Silence of the Lambs a lot, but Manhunter's tone is so gritty and creepy that it is the scariest of the Lecter films. I also far and away prefer Brian Cox's take on the character to Anthony Hopkins. He fits the role as the unnerving background character that the novel dictates, whereas Hopkins becomes far too much of the focus. Hopkins has a ton of screen presence and charisma but he's so ridiculous that you would never believe a real person could be like that, but you could believe someone could be like Cox, and his Lecter is so much scarier than Hopkins because of that.

 

[lazarus]

^^^ everything PH said.

 

[Lancemc]

^^^ everything PH said.

Oh yeah? Never heard your take on that before.

 

[I Move in Mysterious Ways]

I've always heard it was terrible, so despite my love of Michael Mann I've never watched it.

I dig Silence of the Lambs a lot, but Manhunter's tone is so gritty and creepy that it is the scariest of the Lecter films. I also far and away prefer Brian Cox's take on the character to Anthony Hopkins. He fits the role as the unnerving background character that the novel dictates, whereas Hopkins becomes far too much of the focus. Hopkins has a ton of screen presence and charisma but he's so ridiculous that you would never believe a real person could be like that, but you could believe someone could be like Cox, and his Lecter is so much scarier than Hopkins because of that.

While I haven't seen Manhunter for a long time, I remember thinking that William Petersen's drab performance was the weak link and the main reason I liked Red Dragon better.

 

[Lancemc]

News: US Trailer For John Carpenter's THE WARD

Looks like it could be good.

 

[powerhour24]

While I haven't seen Manhunter for a long time, I remember thinking that William Petersen's drab performance was the weak link and the main reason I liked Red Dragon better.

To be fair, Red Dragon does have a killer cast, but everything that I said about MH still makes it superior for me, and while Petersen doesn't give an earth-shattering performance, I thought he was solid, and far better than most of what he's done in his career.

 

[lazarus]

Petersen isn't exactly electric, but he definitely gives you someone whose mind is clearly working overtime on the case. You can see the gears turning. I thought it was a unique perf for the thriller genre, and he fits Mann's moody visuals perfectly.

Tom Noonan is awesome, too.

 

[powerhour24]

Agreed, Petersen suits the role perfectly, without being showy. Not that I wouldn't put Ed Norton in a time machine and put him in the original if I could.

 

[LMP]

Red Dragon is a disaster and a perfect example of why having good names attached to a project doesn't ensure good casting.

 

[lazarus]

News: US Trailer For John Carpenter's THE WARD

Looks like it could be good.

Not really. Too much Steadicam, not enough classic framing.

As expected.

 

[Lancemc]

Too much Steadicam, not enough classic framing.

Possibly, but we'll see how the shots play out. The compositions and general aesthetic in the trailer still looked more interesting than anything he's done in a very long time (even in the trailer I at least see a lot of flat pans, and dolly-ins and outs), which isn't a particularly high standard of course. More importantly it looks like it could be a lot of fun, and I've read a bunch of good reactions to this already.

 

[powerhour24]

I hope it'll be a fun ride, the repeated delays don't fill me with confidence though.

 

[I Move in Mysterious Ways]

To be fair, Red Dragon does have a killer cast, but everything that I said about MH still makes it superior for me, and while Petersen doesn't give an earth-shattering performance, I thought he was solid, and far better than most of what he's done in his career.

I need to give Manhunter another look. I just recall liking Norton's performance of Graham much, much better.