Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Captain Comics]

Have I mentioned lately how awesome you are, Bob?

Board: We need a timeline!

Bob: *snaps fingers*

[The Baron]

Thanks, Skipper! I'd actually like to see some other people's timelines, and see how they interpret things.

Captain Comics said:

Have I mentioned lately how awesome you are, Bob?

Board: We need a timeline!

Bob: *snaps fingers*

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I haven't seen Hud, so I can't comment on it. For a while a recording of it was hanging out on my Tivo, but I think it's drifted off by now. 

In Danse Macabre, Stephen King relates a story that illustrates how faithful to the book Roman Polanski was while making Rosemary's Baby. He said one day Ira Levin got a call from Polanski, asking which issue of The New Yorker should Rosemary's husband Guy be reading, since he described it as one with an ad for men's shirts in the upper right corner, and Polanski couldn't find it. Levin said he made it up, assuming there'd have to be an issue with an ad for men's shirts... and came to the conclusion that, since Rosemary was his first adaptation, Polanski didn't realize that directors changed things all the time! 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

GROUNDHOG DAY: Watching Groundhog Day (one of Tracy’s movies) was the trade-off for watching La La Land (one of my movies). Like The Princess Bride, Groundhog Day is one of those movies various people have been recommending to me for years. I should state upfront that I am embarrassed and ashamed that “Groundhog Day” (the event, not the movie) is even a thing in this country. No one hates Groundhog Day more than I do.

The movie is about a weatherman (Bill Murray) who is caught in a causal reality loop. Murry’s character is caught in the loop for years (relatively speaking). He “soon” becomes despondent and tries several times to commit suicide. Eventually he sets about bettering himself (learning to play piano, to speak French, to sculpt ice, etc.), all in an effort to win the girl (Andie MacDowell). The plot is very much like ST:TNG’s “Cause and Effect” but longer and funnier. No explanation is every provided as to how the loop began or why it ended. In that respect it is much more fantasy than science fiction.

We recently watched both Rebel without a Cause and, as I mentioned above, La La Land, and I had completely forgotten there was a link between the two. I was pleased to discover a similar link between La La Land and Groundhog Day. In La La Land, Ryan Seacrest’s character explains to Emma Stone’s character how to appreciate jazz. In Groundhog Day, toward the end, the lesson from La La Land can be put to use, as Bill Murray introduces a classical theme on the keyboard and the jazz musicians he’s playing with run with it.

I love synchronicity.

[Dave Palmer]

I’ve never seen Hud, and have never had any inclination to see it, and now I know not to waste my time seeing it.  I remember seeing ads for it when it must have been shown on tv and wondering why they would name a movie after a government agency.  The next question is why as a kid I was even aware of the existence of HUD (maybe from tv PSAs?).

Here is what I found regarding Lonnie.  I hope it helps.

From Wikipedia:

Andre Brandon deWilde (April 9, 1942 – July 6, 1972) was an American theater, film, and television actor. Born into a theatrical family in Brooklyn, he debuted on Broadway at the age of seven and became a national phenomenon by the time he completed his 492 performances for The Member of the Wedding. He won a Donaldson Award for his performance, becoming the youngest actor to win one and starred in the subsequent film adaptation.

DeWilde is best known for his performance as Joey Starrett in the film Shane (1953) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred in his own sitcom Jamie on ABC and became a household name making numerous radio and TV appearances before being featured on the cover of Life magazine on March 10, 1952, for his second Broadway outing, Mrs. McThing.

He continued acting in stage, film and television roles into adulthood before his death at age 30 in a car crash in Colorado on July 6, 1972.

Captain Comics said:

Then there was the guy who played Lonnie. He looked like a guy I'd seen in a thousand other movies where he played the young naif. Yet, IMdB is unhelpful in this regard. Why does he look so familiar, when he hasn't been in anything I've seen? Was he aping some other actor? Did other actors ape him in later movies? Does he just have a common face?

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I've been watching the TCM "Jazz In Film" series, which airs on Monday and Thursday nights the whole month of June. Should have mentioned it before now, but there is still one week left. Seen lots of great films: Anatomy of a Murder, The Connection, Farewell, My Lovely, Elevator to the Gallows, and Knife in the Water. And some not so great, but fun, like The Gene Krupa Story and Sweet and Low Down.

[JD DeLuzio]

The Vast of Night (2019-sort of): beautifully filmed low-budget indie film, sort of  Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an episode of The Twilight Zone, made with a bit of a contemporary hipster sensibility. I cannot help but think the movie would work fine if we skipped most of the 18 minutes between the opening and the arrival at work (I watched it a second time that way, 'with' someone who had never seen it), but it's still worth checking out (and if those first 18 minutes start driving you nuts, just fast forward to the part where Fay arrives at work. You'll miss some things, but, as I say, the film might actually work better for you). The ending is predictable, but the journey that takes us there is interesting.

Knives Out (2020): I went in with lowered expectations, because it looks like a modern take on the classic murder mystery, a game of Clue with lot of name actors. The cast includes Chris Evans as a dickish overgrown trust baby, Craig Daniels as a southern detective with an excessive accent, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, K Callan (Martha Kent from Lois and Clark) among others. While the story plays according to many of the expected conventions, it starts going in its own directions about a quarter of a way through, before returning to form at the end. It's not the best film of the year by any means, but it's entertaining and, thematically, a not-so-subtle dig at present-day America and white privilege. Between my wife and I, we had the ending figured in advance of the revelation scene, but we enjoyed watching it.

[ClarkKent_DC]

JD DeLuzio said:

Knives Out (2020): I went in with lowered expectations, because it looks like a modern take on the classic murder mystery, a game of Clue with lot of name actors. The cast includes Chris Evans as a dickish overgrown trust baby, Craig Daniels as a southern detective with an excessive accent, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, K Callan (Martha Kent from Lois and Clark) among others. While the story plays according to many of the expected conventions, it starts going in its own directions about a quarter of a way through, before returning to form at the end. It's not the best film of the year by any means, but it's entertaining and, thematically, a not-so-subtle dig at present-day America and white privilege. Between my wife and I, we had the ending figured in advance of the revelation scene, but we enjoyed watching it.

"Craig Daniels"? Who he? Did you mean Daniel Craig? 

Anyway, we enjoyed Knives Out very much, didn't suss out who the killer was, and look forward to the sequel.

[JD DeLuzio]

Daniel Craig! Sheesh, never post after a long day of trying to solve someone else's tech problem.

Also, I think "white entitlement" might be a better phrase in this context. I know some people would just say, "entitlement," and they're not wrong, but I think it goes further than that. Of course, the entire movie can be enjoyed without paying attention to thematic subtext. It's a mystery.

Seriously, there will be a sequel?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I ACCUSE MY PARENTS (MST3K): Tracy is choosing these from an online list of best episodes. This one was pretty good (the short about truck farmers, too). I had never seen it before.

[Richard Willis]

We just saw Knives Out and enjoyed it. Apparently they are "developing" a sequel with Daniel Craig returning as detective Benoit Blanc. The movie made seven times what it cost to make, so yeah.I presume the setting and all of the other actors will be changed.

It was funny that one character referred to him as sounding like Foghorn Leghorn. 

I think that Chris Evans had a lot of fun playing a non-heroic role for a change.

[Captain Comics]

We watched Vast of Night, and have similar reactions to yours, JD. My wife actually said out loud,"It sure had a slow start." And neither of us liked the  ending, which borrowed too much from CE3K. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed the bulk of it, which I think can be attributed to the lead actors (neither of which were actually teenagers, but were convincing) and a sense of pacing that was so good I noticed it.

Lop off the first 15 minutes, and cut out any scene that removes the mystery, and it would be great Twilight Zone episode. One we'd all remember.