Random Movie Talk, Louis the XIVth Edition

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No, but I will. That's a hell of a cast and John Dahl made Joy Ride so it must have a level of genius in it to some degree.
 
LMP said:
Hey Laz, Reds is great. More thoughts to follow.
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Good to hear, as it's in my personal Top 5 as you may remember. Also curious to know what format you saw it in.

LMP said:
I've yet to see it! Been slowly working through the blind spots in his filmography these past couple of months. Moonstruck is on-deck now; The Weather Man and Honeymoon in Vegas are up next... now I've gotta add Knowing.
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No spoken words said:
Please report back when you've seen Honeymoon in Vegas.
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"What are you gonna do? You gonna put me in AIRPORT JAIL? Get your ticket and MOVE ON!"

The Weather Man was a pleasant surprise. A shame Verbinski got stuck in the Pirates franchise and working with Kurtzman/Orci crap.

LMP said:
Have you seen Red Rock West?
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Saw this a long time ago. Director John Dahl was doing some great neo-noir in the 90s, including The Last Seduction.
 
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nice
 
Awesome that you're going to get a 35mm screening. I saw the 25th anniversary in the theatre and it was quite amazing.

Anything short of a projected DVD just ain't the same.
 
I bet it'll be the same print. Reading about Beatty/Storaro's relationship and how they argued over the use of the camera, settling on the second half being more dynamic and expressive post-revolution was fascinating. The long-take of the train rolling through the desert is pure Storaro. Diane Keaton's the heart-and-soul of the film for me, especially in her scenes with Jack Nicholson.

Slightly off-topic, the same sort of relationship between Richard Rush & Laszlo Kovacs for Getting Straight brings the whole director/cinematography dynamic into question for me insofar as how much "credit" one gets for the idea, if such a line of thought should exist. Have any of you all seen that? Elliott Gould crushes it.
 
Caught that underseen gem a couple years ago; bought the DVD after another viewing of The Stunt Man. Great stuff.

Have you seen Rush's Freebie And The Bean? Now that film is fucking nuts.
 
I adore the hell out of Freebie and the Bean. The central car chase has to be the most destructive thing put to celluloid. Got to see the stunt coordinator talk about how that sequence was staged and oh my god. Even their nicknames are brazenly offensive.

Perfect double bill with Hickey & Boggs as a Proto-Buddy Cop Night.
 
His relatively small screen time is worth the watch, though. A rare restrained and minimalistic performance from Jack, and I think he's both bitterly funny and moving.
 
lazarus said:
His relatively small screen time is worth the watch, though. A rare restrained and minimalistic performance from Jack, and I think he's both bitterly funny and moving.
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Oh, I absolutely agree. There's a moment when he's with Keaton in her house after he puts his romantic feelings out on the table where Beatty cuts from a close-up of Keaton to Jack doing a slight eyebrow twist. It's the only instance of that type of Jack that we see here but it makes perfect sense for that bravado to come out in the moment that he's the most earnest and open. His Eugene O'Neill spends the bulk of his time isolated in the frame or in the less dominant position in a two-shot -- his entrance from the shadows while Beatty tries to educate working-class dudes at a bar is stellar.

The two or three Hackman scenes really threw me. Talk about a minuscule part for an actor of that stature. Then again, if anyone could hold sway over Beatty, it'd be him.
 
The whole cast is unreal down to those small parts. Paul Sorvino, Jerzy Kosinski, Edward Herrmann, George Plimpton, Dolph Sweet, etc. And then of course Maureen Stapleton (well-deserved Oscar), and what is likely Diane Keaton's finest work.

I'm not sure if you stuck through all the witness' voiceover during the end credits, but it's worth sitting for when you catch the 35mm print. There's a very moving part right near the end, something about "Great things lie ahead, worth living and worth dying for". Gets me every time.

Storaro is god, BTW. Other than Jack Cardiff I don't think there's any color cinematographer who hit the peaks he did. Compare this to his work on The Conformist, Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor, Tucker. Dick Tracy. What range. And those films are all unthinkable without his contributions.
 
I'll be sure to stick around for the rest of the credits. I had a two-day turnaround to watch the movie then cut a workable 45 second trailer -- condensing the essential and evocative bits into one package proved a little difficult. Even scrubbing between scenes and studying the camera movement, blocking, and cutting has me itching to watch it again.

The color-processing that he did in Tucker: A Man and His Dream is crazy interesting.
 
I'm trying to get through all the PSH movies I haven't seen and last night I watched Charlie Wilson's War. Couple of thoughts:

1. PSH is fantastic. I particularly loved his indignation in his scene with Roger Sterling and then his comedic timing in his first scene with Hanks and their scene with the young weapons expert.

2. The only person who enjoys Sorkin more than me is Sorkin.
 
Can't weigh in too much more on Knowing. What a bizarrely audacious gem.
 
:up:

Speaking of this I watched Peggy Sue Got Married last night, and holy fucking what the shit is Cage doing there? It's great.
 
The Room posted about that on Facebook yesterday. I will of course take this opportunity to repeat how much I hate this whole "this movie's awful, time to throw bucketloads of money at it" trend. Troll 2 got a movie made about it as well.

Man, it kinda makes me not want to try to make good movies and just attempt to make the worst thing possible so I can 1) Relase it 2) Attain cult classic status 3) Write a book about how awful it was and 4) Get that book turned into a movie.

Fucking genius.
 
But Tommy thought he was making a good movie. The whole reason it's so funny is because he sincerely tried to make a drama and failed spectacularly.

It always surprises me how easy it is to watch.
 
Of course, if you ask Tommy, he's going to tell you that this was his plan all along. It's adorably pathetic.
 
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