Tag: three sentence movies

Thanks to the Next Picture Show Podcast, I have now watched this movie, which is a long meditation on why conquest is yucky.  The slow crash and burn was mesmerizing, and there is a lot of good camera work.  This movie will go down in my personal film history as having the best-ever threat in cinema.*

Cost: $3.99 via Google Play.  Videorama didn’t have it. The library has five copies, but I was on a schedule.
Where watched: at home on Matt’s Surface, with Matt, who really enjoyed it.

*To quote: “Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble.”
(See!  It’s even better when  you hear Klaus Kinski say it in context!)

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068182/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It’s based on a nineteenth century novel, so you know it isn’t going to end well.  I was watching it for Oscar Issac, who was good, but Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Lange also turned out very good performances .  Overall, this was not very chipper, but interesting to watch.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/in_secret.html

Much like Spotlight, I found this to be a very well made movie that upset me.* I was “in” from the get-go and the acting and pace were marvelous.  I love that Adam McKay wants us to think about the financial crisis.**

Cost: $8.75
Where watched: Regal Tigard II

*However, I’ve never been abused by a priest, but I have been affected by the mortgage crisis and recession, so this was much more upsetting and not probably the best choice for Christmas Eve viewing.  But I’m still glad I went.
**Remember The Other Guys?  Aside from being a good stupid buddy comedy, the credits did their best to educate the kind of people who attend stupid buddy comedies about financial reform.

Side note:  In the December Vanity Fair, (the one with Chris Hemsworth on the cover) there’s an article by Michael Lewis about the making of this movie.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/big_short.html

I found myself more impatient with these episodes, for which I blame the long wait between parts I and parts II of the final season.*  I was pleased with the way the series wrapped up for some of the characters,** less so with others.  I find myself wondering what the point of the show was, and now want to watch everything again from the beginning.***

Cost: free from library.  (I was monitoring the catalog, so I could be among the first to place a hold, but I missed it by a day and ended up 275th or something.  So it was a long wait.)
Where watched: at home.

*I mean really, the show ended for good in May, the DVD should have been available the very next day.   And there was also no need to split the season in two.
**Joan, Peggy, Roger, Ken.
***Tentatively planned for spring and summer 2016, but I may have wandered off to something else by then.  If I do, I’m going to keep a list of who sleeps with who. I imagine it will be a quite lengthy list.

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=nv_sr_1

I felt a profound sense of relief as this movie ended.*  I loved the plot,** I loved the new characters, I thought the old characters were seamlessly integrated, I’m looking forward to seeing what the next feature brings, and I gasped aloud twice.***  Also!, I’m excited that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were the main characters for the new franchise because they seem interesting to watch.

Cost: $5.00 (It was $5.00 Sunday! I thought they might have an exception for this film, but they didn’t!)
Where watched: Regal Vancouver City Center Stadium 12 with Matt.  (And a gaggle of unruly ten-year-old-boys with no apparent adult minder in sight.)

*I had no idea how worried I was that it wasn’t going to be very good.
**Rehash of A New Hope?  Don’t care! Still liked it!
***Once when a certain someone took of his mask (This was where my media blackout paid off, as I had no idea who the actor behind the mask was. I love that actor!) once when, well, you know.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/star_wars_episode_vii__the_force_awakens_ver3.html

Was I going to like this movie as much on second viewing as I did on the first?*   It’s still one of the most realistic depictions of a relationship I’ve ever seen and both Zooey Deschanel and Paul Schneider are perfect (even though they are too old to play their characters).  Also, the angry clowning at the hospital is still one of the best mother-son interactions I’ve ever seen captured on film.

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: PSU Cinema

* Yes, it turns out, I was.  And it looked great on a big screen.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2003/all_the_real_girls.html

Oh my god, guys, this is an awesome strong-female-character movie and it also has a subplot featuring a cat!*  I feel the need to point out it’s Sci-Fi tense, not really scary, because if you are like me, you are more apt to watch sci-fi tense.**  I also really enjoyed seeing 1970s view of space, and how our views have changed.***

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*You, of course, probably know this as the movie came out in 1979 and is almost as old as me, but I just watched it and thus am just now understanding how good it is.
**But yes, I know that you’ve probably already seen it, because see above, but still!  There are probably five other people who haven’t seen it yet and I feel I must convince them.
***Smoking!  Would not at all happen today. Also, I was distracted because now that whole ship would have closed-circuit cameras, but they hadn’t yet figured that out about the future.  I found myself wondering how one would ratchet up tension today given the closed circuit cameras.  I guess you could go the easy route–cameras suddenly don’t work!

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1979/alien.html