Rewatched The Grand Budapest Hotel on DVD. It's even better the second time around. My favorite movie of the year!

ha ha ha-- that movie is awesome


if you liked that you might also like factotum (another bukowski-based movie)

--

i've watched a bunch of things lately but i'd recommend



life is sweet - (mike leigh, 1990). great characters. you'll start laughing your ass off and by the end you might get a bit weepy. the criterion disc has a bonus of several "5 minute films" leigh made as a proposed tv show (you can find those on youtube)



the match factory girl - (aki kaurismäki, 1990). i have no words for the greateness of this guy. he just blows my mind every time with his simplicity. here it's the opposite of the movie above, where you'll start a bit weepy and end up laughing your ass off.



ip man 2 - (wilson yp, 2010) dammit, i missed the first IP MAN because there were so many ip man movies (eg. wong kar-wai's "the grandmaster") that i thought i had already seen it. big mistake, watch the 2008 ip man first. this is a bit of a bullshit movie, but great martial arts and to see sammo hung kick ass in his overweight carcass is just awesome.



in the house (françois ozon 2012) - not a great movie but a good one, and lots of fun. billed as a "thriller" (a manipulative little sociopath is at the heart of it) it is only great comedy for a lot of the duration. too many things to say and i don't want to write an esay about it but if you're a fan of ozon you shouldn't miss this.

has anyone watched Snowpiercer? bout the train in the future?

no but that sounds AMAZING.

i haven't watched a good film in ages! i am going to get on some of the recommendations in here

yes! fun stuff. what i loved the most were the insane sets, and all the references to terry gilliam, and tilda swinton's spectacular performance (i only realized it was her much later). the story itself was good but a bit refried, so what i was left with was a great aesthetic feeling from all the fantastic visuals but not a sense of a great original story. still, great fun. i think i wrote about it a few pages back.

sounds even better i have to watch this film (terry gilliam + tilda swinton YES PLEASE)

Actually went to see Hobbit 5 Armies, it was the best of the 5 movies i think, unrelenting violence and battles - some of it was quite humorous - I thought the 1st installment was awful, so I was surprised this was so enjoyable. Is there part 3? everything seemed to be resolved at the end

5 armies is part 3 of hobbit

unexpected journey
desolation of smaug
then the 5 armies

My wife sat with me and watched the first 2 Hobbit films and now she says I owe her a movie, and she wants to watch something women like. any suggestions?

something women like? any of the tolkien movies by peter jackson. my wife loves those things and rewatches them frequently. i tolerate her habit with the help of headphones.

She has requested a movie that does not require constant attention to keep up with who is fighting who.

either Magic Mike or the Full Monty, I spec.

seen full monty. ha.

she won't watch snowpiercer because she is tired of sci fi

okay so no scifi i was gonna say no fantasy either? but maybe she does like fantasy (you guys watch game of thrones i think?).

so, tell us what she likes. you said she liked "el sexo y lucía". does she like spanish movies? what themes, etc? any actors she prefers? any directors? any languages/cultures?

i like playing this game. gimme some info and i'll give you... 5 possible ones. yes?

her fave movies

el sexo y lucia
Pride & Prejudice
Steel Magnolias

okay. i'll give you 5 movies i like with women protagonists, serious/sentimental, a mix of foreign & english language:

but o wait wait wait if she liked pride & prejudice you must show her "austenland" (it's a comedy). open the screening with that. it's not great or anything but maybe she'll appreciate it more. this an extra bonus.

then move on to...

like water for chocolate (semi mexican, 90's but about the mexican revolution era, a bit silly but entertaining)
eat drink man woman (taiwanese soap, 90s, opera about 3 sisters, funny, will make you hungry for chinese food)
life is sweet (british, 1990, starts funny but gets heavy, and it starts w/ the dad but it ends w/ the mom & 2 daughters) (i just watched this 2 days ago)
diabolique (the original one, 1950, french, b/w). hot damn! great thriller. in french.
mildred pierce (1945). ask demonrail about it.

there's gotta be one there she hasn't seen

will run these through the wringer....

we watched water for chocolate together. I could not follow the plot. Same thing happened with sexo y lucia. I could not understand what the character's motivations were and why they did what they did. It made little sense to me.

she loved it though....

if she loved h2o4cacao then eat drink man woman is the way to go

get chinese takeout for "dinner and a movie"

make sure there's duck!

so we're done..swaug was the one that was instantly forgettable. the journey seemed to be pretty much the same movie as the 1st of Lord of the Rings..

st. vincent
<3