[Spoonov]

Originally Posted by Plechazunga

That was a right head-fuck...very pretentious mind

All his films are.

I watched Dreamers on film4 last night. Fell asleep half an hour before the end of the film. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it. Eva Green has a great rack on her and would get it. Oh and those old Parisian apartments look well nice, as well.

Can't rate Dreamers as I didn't watch the whole film. But I can rate Eva Green's tits.

Eva's tits - 10/10

[Kevrockcity]

anyone seen inland empire, the new david lynch picture?

an endurance test, unfortunately.

http://pretentiousmusings.com/inland_empire.html

[Spoonov]

Why don't you review, it Kev?

(I love Lynch's films)

[mehro]

did you watch before sunset yet, spoony?

[Spoonov]

Originally Posted by mehro

did you watch before sunset yet, spoony?

No, not yet. I've got so many films to see. Downloaded Children of Men(Hectic's link) today. Will watch that tonight. Probably.

[Kevrockcity]

Originally Posted by Spoony

Why don't you review, it Kev?

(I love Lynch's films)

i did review it. that's what is in the link (i review films on the side).

here's a copy and paste:

INLAND EMPIRE

Crazy people don’t know they’re crazy. That’s what makes them crazy. I don’t know if David Lynch is crazy, crazy being a nebulous, changing concept, not to mention a term out of favor among the mental health profession. David Lynch is weird, though, and he makes weird films.

But does David Lynch know he's weird?

That's really what it boils down to, doesn't it, for the director who seems to attract such spirited praise and vitriol? A critical darling and a critical punching bag, there’s that nagging question of whether the man is genuinely strange and just trying his damnedest. Or can he perhaps be both – singularly bizarre and aware of it at the same time?

By my measure, Lynch has made two genuine masterpieces (The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet), a great film (the perpetually misunderstood Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), two good films (Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway), two overrated curiosities (The Straight Story and Eraserhead), an interesting failure (Dune), and one complete abortion (Wild at Heart). His latest picture, Inland Empire, is a three-hour plus experimental feature/endurance test staring Laura Dern in multiple roles, the most prominent one being an actress in a Tennessee Williams-esque film within a film. There is also some stuff with rabbits and Poland.

Lynch's best work is delightfully free of the sickness of modern filmmaking, this sickness being irony. So much of contemporary cinema makes itself the subject. We watch the camera, not the man - it's tiresome and, I would argue, unhealthy for a culture to be so detached from our own visceral reactions. David Lynch has never been an ironic filmmaker, even when it would appear that he is (his repeated use of Americana and classic pop songs are quite sincere, almost painfully so). That is, he has never been ironic until lately.

In both Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, the act of filmmaking and film production figures prominently into the plot. Lynch films have always been insular and navel-gazing (the filmic equivalent of Jackson Pollack's adage "I am nature"), but not really in this quasi-superficial manner. The director has been openly critical of the studio system ever since ABC/Disney's bungled handling of Mulholland Drive (indeed, his last four pictures have been financed via French production companies) and his latest films (particularly Inland Empire) are overly consumed with the airing of so much dirty laundry and the satiric rendering of various Hollywood stereotypes. It can be amusing, but honestly, you wish Lynch just got on with it.

Lynch's most satisfying period saw him casting the charming space alien Kyle MacLachlan in lead roles (Blue Velvet, Dune, Twin Peaks). Elegantly coiffed like his director, the duck-walking, cherry pie-eating, Heineken-loving MacLachlan always made for a bizarre protagonist. One imagines Lynch saw much of himself in his on-screen doppelganger; that the characters played by MacLachlan were avatars for Lynch himself. In his last two pictures, however, Lynch has found a new doppelganger - the traditionally handsome Justin Theroux (probably best known for baring his sculpted abdominal muscles in Charlie's Angels 2).

Cast as a film director (naturally) in Mulholland Drive and a film actor in Inland Empire, Theroux is notable for two reasons. First, he plays the most "normal" characters probably of any Lynch films (including even The Straight Story, Lynch's most ostensibly "normal" picture) and definitely the two he appears in. Secondly, Theroux is never completely present in either film in the truest sense, instead rather wading through events with a detached - it pains me to say it - irony. When faced with a traditionally Lynchian (ie: surrealist) figure/conundrum, he responds as we all might should such circumstances arise in our own lives: general confusion and disbelief (take his raised eyebrow of a reaction to the Cowboy - a Lynchian character if there ever was one - in Mulholland Drive as exhibit A). Nightmares are powerful when we don’t know we are having them. Inland Empire is a nightmare as Mulholland Drive is a nightmare, except Justin Theroux knows he is having it and very well might wake at any moment.

There is a self-awareness to the geek show born out in other places as well. Character eccentricities are made even further queer with fish-eye close-ups, repeated shock edits, and ear-shattered sound effects. It's less nightmare so much Nightmare on Elm Street, really, a constant reminder of Inland Empire's obvious movieness. It brings us back to the question: does David Lynch know he's weird? He certainly recognizes that his existential oddness has become a brand (Lynch currently hawks his own coffee and ringtones on his website) - in the eyes of many, it's sure to undermine the view of him as the intransigent artist unmoved by commercial pressures (see also The Devil and Daniel Johnston). When you come to this kind of realization about your consumer market niche, it really is a slippery slope on the way to full blown ironic self-consciousness. Yes, Justin Theroux knows he is in a David Lynch film, but David Lynch knows he is directing one.

Interesting footnote: David Lynch was present for a Q&A following the Inland Empire screening I was present at, during which he remarked that he would "never in a million years" return to shooting on film.

[Kevrockcity]

Originally Posted by Spoony

No, not yet. I've got so many films to see. Downloaded Children of Men(Hectic's link) today. Will watch that tonight. Probably.

before sunrise is basically a perfect film (for what it is).

[Spoonov]

I liked Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway more than Blue Velvet. Not seen Eraserhead and Elephant Man, but they're on my 'to see list'.

[mehro]

Elephant Man is great movie. So is the Straight Story. i'd actually say that those two are lynch's best. The Elephant Man was actually responsible for a new category being introduced at the oscars for Makeup Artists, i think.

[mehro]

When a nominees for the 53rd Annual Academy Awards were announced in February 1981, many in the industry were appalled that this movie was not going to be honored for its make-up effects (at the time there was not regular category and winners for make-up were cited with a "special award"). Feeling that the make-up technicians deserved to be rewarded for the film, a letter a protest was sent to the Academy's Board of Governors to ask them to change their minds and give the film a special award. The Academy refused but in response to the outcry they decided a year later to reward make-up artists with their own annual category, and thus the Best Make-Up award was born.

[Spoonov]

Seen any new films lately, Mehro?

[Kevrockcity]

i find eraserhead to be fairly unwatchable, though it is interesting to think that mel brooks saw it and thought lynch would be the perfect director for a straight forward period piece set in britain.

[mehro]

Originally Posted by Spoony

Seen any new films lately, Mehro?

well, i saw the Seventh Seal again yesterday. still a great watch. sometimes watching these movies again after a while shows you a lot more about it. like reading a good book again. also saw life of brian again.

i have bridge on river Kwai lying at home. will watch it over the weekend. also, i have Amadeus coming in the mail.

[mehro]

oh yeah, i saw once upon a time in america and confidence last weekend.

Once upon a time in america - class

confidence - fairly shit.

[Spoonov]

Originally Posted by mehro

Once upon a time in america - class
.

Good, but I've always felt it was vastly overrated. I loved the first half of the films. . .went downhill for me.

[mehro]

Originally Posted by Spoony

Good, but I've always felt it was vastly overrated. I loved the first half of the films. . .went downhill for me.

the bit about james woods being alive now seems like such a cliched plot but was original for its time. the movie was actually based on a 1970 book.

[mehro]

when are we getting that entertainment forum? i feel like bumping all my movie related threads at times. like the hitchcock one and the child actors one.

[Davo]

Has Looking Busy reviewed a Beautiful Mind yet?

[Plechazunga]

[golden_blunder]

Looking forward to seeing this one, Danny Boyle's "Sunshine"

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31275

[dirtygringo]

Originally Posted by Kevrockcity

Lynch has made two genuine masterpieces (The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet), a great film (the perpetually misunderstood Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), two good films (Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway), two overrated curiosities (The Straight Story and Eraserhead), an interesting failure (Dune), and one complete abortion (Wild at Heart).

wild at heart is fuckin great film.

[Kevrockcity]

not really. it's quotable, i'll give you that, but it's also ugly, cynical, misogynistic, and pointless.

[dirtygringo]

Cnut! i was just about to start firing off quotes from it.

[Kevrockcity]

"ya know, I sure do like a girl with nice tits like yours who talks tough and looks like she can fuck like a bunny. do you fuck like that? 'cause if ya do, i'll fuck ya good. like a big ol' jackrabbit bunny, jump all around that hole. bobby peru don't come up for air."

one of the more vile characters set to celluloid.

[dirtygringo]

"Speaking of Jack, One eyed Jack's yearning to go a peeping in a seafood store!"
Bobby Peru. Legend.

[golden_blunder]

"i apologise for calling you gentlemen homosexuals"

[Balloonless]

Originally Posted by golden_blunder

"i apologise for calling you gentlemen homosexuals"

Closet is now OPEN, ladies and gentleman golden_fudgepacker

[golden_blunder]

Originally Posted by Balloonless

Closet is now OPEN, ladies and gentleman golden_fudgepacker

i was quoting a line from the movie. Do not drag the movie thread down..

[Spoonov]

Apocalypto

Comment Visually stunning at times, although, some of the motion shots(use of motion blur, no doubt), seemed a bit amateurish. The gist of the film was about one man's struggle to avoid capture. Now, I really enjoyed Apocalypto up until 1hr 40 mins into the film. For the next hour the film became very tedious, and turned into a long chase. That said, overall it was still pretty enjoyable. However due it's accessibility, well, what do you expect from a Hollywood blockbuster? the film was full of flaws. It felt like the Mayans weren't authentic at all, especially the way they interacted with each other. Actually, I'm being a bit cruel, they looked the part, but they just didn't feel like Mayans. It could've been any American sitcom, dressed up at times. And this was the major disappointment for me.

7/10 Only because I'm the generous type.

[olesmyhero]

PLOT
An ex soldier returns after WW1 and takes up in the illegal booze business during the prohibition. He eventually lands flat on his ass.

REVIEW
James Cagney delivers a solid performance as Eddie Bartlett. Humphrey Bogart does well is his friend/enemy. Overall a very solid 1930's gangster film.

RATING
8/10