list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Being There

One of the most interesting and boring films in pop movie history, Peter Sellers is a simpleminded gardener thrown into Washington society, mistaken for a genius and later a Christ figure in this 1979 adaption of the Jerzy Kosinsky book beautifully photographed in a soft grey palette. 

I didn't mind Antichrist, but your description of Charlotte Gainsbourg as "that Patti Smith glove puppet" is the funniest thing I've seen all week. So I'm not the only person who sees the physical resemblance between the two...

The Hangover Part 2 (2011) directed by Todd Phillips

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results will never qualify as insanity if you gross $580 million at the box office doing so. It's exactly the same structure as the first film apart from the dawning realisation that it's real hard to reproduce the fun, freshness and winning chemistry of the original. Cooper, Helms and Bartha behave like lab rats who could negotiate their way around this same maze blindfold while Galifiankis completely overshoots his reprise of the slightly creepy idiot savant Alan by turning him into a needlessly camp ADD toddler. That a cute chain smoking capuchin monkey conspires to upstage the entire cast should tell you all you need to know. Yes, there are some very funny moments but these are way too far apart. I notice there is a (gulp) third helping of these reheated leftovers available. A pale imitation of the original and a baffling exception to the law of diminishing returns

Martyrs (2008) Directed by Pascal Laugier

Pivotal in the development of the New French Extremity movement, Martyrs is a deeply disquieting and thought provoking story that ultimately poses more questions than it offers satisfactory conclusions. Often brutally violent and unflinchingly visceral, it nevertheless shouldn't be mistaken as belonging to the voyeuristic rump of gratuitous torture porn that litters our contemporary mindset, as it has much more to offer than the latter's pitiful sadism by proxy. It's refreshing that Laugier has cast two very strong female lead roles in his film and there is no equivalent leading male protagonist in the entire undertaking. (Even the hideous monster of the ID made flesh by Lucie's deranged hallucinations is unequivocally female so we can discard the feminism ticket entirely chaps)
A story about human suffering, mental illness as a survival mechanism, kindness, guilt, friendship, love, forgiveness, revenge (and some weird s.h.i.t. about a secret organisation - headed by an elderly female  - who wish to glimpse the afterlife via the testimonies of those they have systematically tortured to the point of transcendence i.e. young female martyrs) It's much better and more credible than my my glib analysis would suggest and I would recommend it unhesitatingly as one of those movies that lives long in the memory after the credits roll.
I also fell hopelessly in love with one of the main characters (Anna played by the delectable Morjana Alaoui) but be warned that her pretty face is practically all that's left of her by the end.

Edited by ExittheLemming - May 26 2014 at 04:09

^ not to mention that old fairy tale teller, the Marquis de Sade

ExittheLemming wrote: Martyrs (2008) Directed by Pascal LaugierPivotal in the development of the New French Extremity movement, Martyrs is a deeply disquieting and thought provoking story that ultimately poses more questions than it offers satisfactory conclusions.

...Eeeerrrmm, no it isn't

ExittheLemming wrote: Often brutally violent and unflinchingly visceral, it nevertheless shouldn't be mistaken as belonging to the voyeuristic rump of gratuitous torture porn that litters our contemporary mindset

...Eeeerrrmm, yes it should

ExittheLemming wrote: as it has much more to offer than the latter's pitiful sadism by proxy

...Eeeerrrmm, no it doesn't

A big fat raspberry for this film from me...

...sorry

The Depraved

A group of students does some urban exploring in tunnels underneath Berlin. Of course, this go awry and soon they are lost and come across an old deranged ex-east german boarder patrolman and chaos and pain ensue. Decent, yet predictable. Points go to the man who played the villain...excellently done and it was wonderful to the hear deep menacing German.

Taxidermia (2006) Directed by Gyorgy Palfi.

Difficult what to make of this Hungarian effort which is neither conclusively comedy, satire or horror. Purportedly a tripartite metaphor outlining the defining stages of Hungary's social development from WW2 onwards, the movie is actually a lot more fun, frustrating and disturbing than such a dry description would lead you to believe. It starts with a lowly army private who is bullied and oppressed by his commanding officer which somehow leads him to masturbate excessively and set fire to his resultant ejaculations by way of escapist release (no I'm not making this up) A convoluted and circuitous karma leads our humble squaddie to impregnating the officer's wife (don't ask) and is executed for his trouble. The resultant child grows up to become a Soviet bloc speed eating champion whose claim to fame is having a vomiting technique named after him (yes, things take a gross turn hereabouts) This section works extremely well as a thinly veiled parody of the hideous ironies and baffling inequities that arose behind the iron curtain in the name of communist ideology. Take a deep breathe for the third and final section and don't watch this on a full stomach....son of speed eating champion is a skinny and lonely taxidermist who has to care for his ailing father (by now a hideously and morbidly obese blubber mountain who cannot move from his apartment and feeds his numerous cats on lard to fatten them up)  Father and son squabble, son abandons father to fend for himself. Cats eat father alive. Son stuffs father professionally and starts to practice his discipline on himself, injecting copious amounts of pain killers to enable him to stuff his own body before decapitation by specially rigged up mechanical device.(If you've reached this far, kudos for your fortitude)
There are moments of genuine pathos, charm and humor in this bizarre tale but I couldn't recommend this to anyone unless you have an affinity for that strain of comedy that emerges for peoples forced to live under regimes where dissent punishable by death manifests itself as dead-pan slapstick. I'm glad and grateful to have been born in the west.




Edited by ExittheLemming - May 30 2014 at 08:05

Jim Garten wrote: I gather 'Taxidermia' was not made by the Childrens' Film Foundation, then?

Correct, should be given an VTR rating = Velcro Tummy Required

Manhattan Murder Mystery

High-energy romp with Allen and Keaton at their bickering best, a tight, fun, suspenseful script, and a great supporting cast running around NYC trying to trip-up a killer.