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Divius · May 1, 2017

Source: Alien: Covenant

April Wall of Shame:

Remember:

DO NOT just post the title of the movie you wratched. It isn't conducive at all to the kind of discussion & communication we want to engender here, because it tells us nothing of you, the movie, the impact of the latter on the former. Post scores, descriptions, essays, poems, gifs, hashtags, whatever provides you the best outlet for personal expression, you unique little digital snowflake. Also, Marvel movies are mostly shit. - icarus-daedelus

Interesting movie listing/rating sites:

Letterboxd
iCheckMovies

Our ICM group: http://www.icheckmovies.com/groups/neogaf/

Regs on such sites:

- Post your top 5 of April!

- Are you new to the Movies You've Seen Recently threads? Let us know a bit about yourself:

1. What's your favorite Movie?
2. Who's your favorite director?
3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?
4. Favorite Genre(s)?
5. What's your favorite performance in film?

- Unsure of what to watch?

ICM has a compilation of many official movie lists with lots of interesting recommendations. Or you could ask members in the thread; we don't bite. Participate!
---
April thread.

Divius · May 1, 2017

Watched 27 movies in April

TOP 5 NEW VIEWINGS OF APRIL
5. Match Point
4. Get Out
3. The Kid
2. Judgment at Nuremberg
1. Kes

MOST VALUABLE REWATCHES
Lost in Translation
Speed Racer
AVP: Alien vs. Predator

WORST NEW VIEWINGS OF APRIL
(none of these were super bad, no real turds this month!)
The Last Unicorn
Push
Keeping Up with the Joneses

TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared · May 1, 2017

It's May! Anything good coming out in May, I can't think. Anyway.

Their Finest is a film thats right up my street. I adore films that are about films and about the making of films, I adore films about Britain and British spirit in the second world war, and I positively love films that are about how films can inspire us, give us hope, and lead us to victory even against the backdrop of the deadliest conflict in history.

Yeah this is a good un.

It's a film that's practically designed to make people love it, in thats its a crowd pleaser, that doesn't shy away from the horror of war. It's gender politics are refreshing and very modern. The making of the film in the film is done very well, with more than a touch of Hail Casear in there I thought, and its done with the right amount of charm, humour, and authenticiticity without allowing any one aspect to drown the others out.

It's got terrific performances, terrific chemistry between the main cast, pretty hilarious to way more of an extent than I expected, with Bill Nighy and a surprising cameo from Jake Lacy getting the biggest laughs. I was completely invested in the love plot personally, even if others apparently weren't. It was moving, charming, funny, and basically a film that was practically designed to make me love it.

phoenixyz · May 1, 2017

My Top 5 (of 12) of April

1. La La Land
2. Paterson
3. Unbreakable
4. Split
5. Lion

Baron von Loathsome · May 1, 2017

Top 5 new watches in April:

1. Stalker (1979)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
3. It Follows (2014)
4. M (1931)
5. Brazil (1985)

Pachimari · May 1, 2017

Top 5 new watches of 22 in April:

1. Hell or High Water
2. Keeping Up With the Joneses
3. Paterson
4. Fast and Furious 6
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Furious 7, Fantastic Beasts, Rogue One, Taxi Driver, Cop Car and Batman were pretty good movies too.

not psycho · May 1, 2017

19 new watches in April. Top 5:

1. There Was a Father (1942)
2. Halloween (1978)
3. The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
4. Dogtooth (2009)
5. Death Proof (2007)

Best rewatch:
Before Sunrise

I also (re)watched the first 7 Fast and Furious movies. I'd rank them:

6 > 5 >> 3 > 1 > 2 > 4 >> 7

5 and 6 are basically equal, but where 5 has my favorite overall sequence, 6 is the best at what the series itself is best at: character chemistry. Dom is great when matched with Shaw, Brian, Letty, or Hobbs. Shaw is an excellent villain, the evil mirror version of Dom (doesn't care about family, goes out of his way to kill innocents for fun). Han, Gisele, and Roman are also perfect together.

Gisele: There's one thing you boys are forgetting. He's a man. Let's go.
Roman: ”He's a man."
Han: You know, she always says that.

The final sequence has a ton of weight:

The only reason they were there at all was to save one person, Letty, and the only reason they're on the plane is for Mia, but they lose Gisele in the process. Han throws the one responsible through the turbine. Meanwhile the two main villains are both thrown off the plane and die. And Han is on the path to his own death. Damn.

7 has by far the worst chemistry in the series so far. Dom and older Shaw have none. And there is hardly any weight to anything... at this point, they should just bring back

Han and Gisele

. If it wasn't for one awesome action sequence (which comes too soon), it would be a bad movie.

True Savior · May 1, 2017

Pachimari said:
Top 5 new watches of 22 in April:

1. Hell or High Water
2. Keeping Up With the Joneses
3. Paterson
4. Fast and Furious 6
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Furious 7, Fantastic Beasts, Rogue One, Taxi Driver, Cop Car and Batman were pretty good movies too.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 > Taxi Driver?

Am I reading this post right?

Fallout-NL · May 1, 2017

I watched a bunch of shit in April:

Terminator 2 - Still fantastic. There will never be a better sci-fi action film.
Hateful Eight - Third time watching this. It's good.
Willow - Didn't really hold up, sadly. Loved this when I was younger, but now... not so much. Blew my mind that Warwick Davis was only 17 or 18 when he was in this.
Thomas Crown Affair (Brosnan) - Fantastic. Someone on here once said it was Brosnan's best Bond movie that wasn't a Bond movie. Russo is beautiful in it.
Ex Machina - Liked it better than the first time I saw it. Dance scene is great.
Arq - Edge of Tomorrow did it much better.
Dangerous Liaisons - First time I saw this actually. Amazing. Malkovich is so so good. Made me wonder what the point of 'Cruel Intentions' was, why make that at all when you have this to contend with?
Beauty and the Beast (Animated) - Last time I saw this I probably didn't even have pubic hair. I wonder what happened to all the villagers that were involved in the fight near the end.
Devil's Advocate - Starting to show its age a little bit. Still enjoy the mood - and Pacino's monologue at the end.
Paterson - Not bad. Love the way it just moves along quietly.
Flatliners - Third time seeing this. First time I noticed all the weird neon lighting everywhere. Still very 80s despite it being a 1990 film. Counts as brat pack, right? Or does Rob Lowe have to be in it?
The Void - Missed potential. Pretty decent vibe, but the writing is horrible.
Knowing - Nicholas Cage, baby.
Thin Red Line - Nick Nolte, baby. Grenade pin scene still good. Though it like it better when it's a bit more down to earth like that than when it lingers for over 2 minutes on some dude losing his mind. Also, fucking everyone was in this film.

Fancy Clown · May 1, 2017

My final movie of April was a rewatch of The Birds: The first half hour of The Birds patiently follows Tippi Hedren's spoiled, rich girl prankster character Melanie Daniels on an elaborate quest to pull another flirtatious practical joke, carefreely jaunting around in a mink coat even among the salty sea dogs of Bodega Bay, where most of the film's actions take place. The leisurely pacing works wonders here, slowly doling out a web of envy among the cast of female characters (directed around the same handsome but uninteresting man) before nature out-pranks all of Melanie's hijinks in one fell swoop. While the movie doesn't retain the same horrifying power that kept me awake at night as a kid, and some of the bird attack scenes feel a little goofy, the film remains chilling due to the utterly inexplicable nature of their newfound malice. And of course Hitchcock finds great joy in quietly adding birds to the background in order to build suspense, a tactic that never fails to work. What really keeps the film from being far more effective than hokey is not just the ambiguous and torrential terror of its avian antagonists, or Hitchcock's suspense chops, but the perverseness in how the birds are used in relation to the character dynamics that the movie spent so much time playing with. In a dark twist of fate, the characters all seem to get what they want as a strifeless and cohesive family unit, but the cost of which is a gilded cage of their own, becoming the caged love birds that kicked off this most deadly practical joke. Things are left on a uncertain note, however, and there is a great sense of unease that lingers after the film ends without fanfare.

Top 5 new watches:
1. The Asphalt Jungle
2. Cat People
3. Unbreakable
4. Shadow of a Doubt
5. Anomalisa

Best rewatch:
Toy Story

kevin1025 · May 1, 2017

My top five new watches for April are:

1) Everybody Wants Some!!
2) Free Fire
3) Clouds of Sils Maria
4) T2 Trainspotting
5) Sully

I'm mostly looking forward to seeing Personal Shopper, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Alien: Covenant, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (crazy that it's coming out this month, I thought it was a ways off still), and I might make time to see The Lost City of Z. Then also continue playing catch-up with last year's films.

Pachimari · May 1, 2017

True Savior said:
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 > Taxi Driver?

Am I reading this post right?

To be honest I'm a huge Marvel fan, so I really like my MCU movies. Plot and everything in Taxi Driver was great, but I didn't really like the third act. And I was more entertained by Gotg2. Whereas in Taxi Driver I was pretty annoyed most of the time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

demosthenes · May 1, 2017

Whew, I have a lot of catching up to do. Will do it when I have more time but showed my girlfriend Inception this weekend and I still love it. I think everything comes together so well and the music is awesome.

@ Fallout. Amen to Thomas Crown.

Freewheelin' · May 1, 2017

Saw Black and Chrome in the cinema last night. Not as good as the original version; some of the action was a lot harder to follow, and it strips the world and characters of some vitality and energy. But still an extraordinary movie and one of the great directorial accomplishments of the twenty first century.

Rhomega Beta · May 1, 2017

Top 5 of April:

1. Kubo and the Two Strings
2. The Founder
3. The BFG
4. Room
5. Bad Boys II

Icolin · May 1, 2017

Top 5 of April:

1. Paths of Glory
2. Fate of the Furious
3. Colossal
4. Beauty And The Beast (2017)
5. The Void

Best rewatch: Inception, although Unbreakable is damn good as well.

Looking to try and catch up on The Lost City of Z and Personal Shopper this month, as well as rewatch all of the Alien movies before Covenant comes out.

demosthenes said:
Whew, I have a lot of catching up to do. Will do it when I have more time but showed my girlfriend Inception this weekend and I still love it. I think everything comes together so well and the music is awesome.

Hey, I just watched it too!

demosthenes · May 1, 2017

Icolin said:
Top 5 of April:

1. Paths of Glory
2. Fate of the Furious
3. Colossal
4. Beauty And The Beast (2017)
5. The Void

Best rewatch: Inception, although Unbreakable is damn good as well.

Looking to try and catch up on The Lost City of Z and Personal Shopper this month, as well as rewatch all of the Alien movies before Covenant comes out.

Hey, I just watched it too!

Nice. It was really cool seeing my girlfriend go down the theory rabbit hole. And she took it a step further by looking at possible different actor choices and what not. She's enjoyed most movies I've showed her but this was the first time the discussion went this far, I was pleased haha.

Divius · May 1, 2017

Off to a good start this month!

Luchino Visconti's The Leopard is one of the most beautiful looking and visual pleasing movies I have ever seen. The sets, the costumes, the locations, the people oh my. The colors are lush and rich and the composition is like a super comfy warm blanket. The story it tells is great, dissecting layers of aristocracy with fleshed out characters. It's dialogue-heavy and dense with characters, factions, families and relations, which does not make it the easiest watch. The ballroom climax was perfection. Strong performances and soundtrack as well. What a movie.

smisk · May 1, 2017

I know I'm gonna get a lot of shit for this, but I watched Rashomon (1950) on Saturday and it really didn't do much for me. Maybe if I had been in the mood to analyze each story and the character's motivations for telling it that way I would have gotten more out of it, but I really didn't feel that it said anything profound about morality etc.
Don't get me wrong, there's still some great stuff here. Toshiro Mifune's performance was great, and I loved the scene with the medium as well. Great cinematography for a film of this vintage, loved the screen wipes. Oh, and I loved the second, flailing "fight" as told by the woodcutter.

6/10, hopefully I'll like Kurosawa's later stuff better.

AngmarsKing701 · May 1, 2017

Top 5 (of 11) new watches in April:

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Kong: Skull Island
3. Beauty and the Beast (2017)
4. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
5. X-Men: Apocalypse

Fake edit - Flow, how did you stay under 100 last month? You're slacking!

KraftyKrankins · May 1, 2017

April was the weakest month in years for me.
Rewatches:
- Trainspotting 2
- La La Land

New:
- Loving
- Get Out

I'll finally go and see Fast 8 tomorrow but other than that I'll wait for the rest to hit BluRay.

lordxar · May 1, 2017

AngmarsKing701 said:
Fake edit - Flow, how did you stay under 100 last month? You're slacking!

He made a valiant effort with Samurai talk but ultimately failed to overcome...

Blader · May 1, 2017

The Fate of the Furious
Fun ride. I think I enjoyed this more than 7 but less than 5 and 6. I think Dom is -- or at least has become -- a boring protagonist so splitting up the crew like this was a good way of both making Dom more interesting and also giving Hobbs and Shaw time to shine. Really, I'd be totally fine if they just dropped everyone else from the franchise for a Rock/Statham spinoff; they've got great chemistry together and a ton of charisma. Speaking of chemistry and charisma, I think it's time for Scott Eastwood's movie career to end. Also, Charlize was wasted here. Give her some guns and cars next time, please.
7/10

lordxar said:
He made a valiant effort with Samurai talk but ultimately failed to overcome...

lol. I did my best to help out.

Top 5 of April:
1. Get Out
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
3. The Fate of the Furious
4. Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four
5. Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces

Sean C · May 1, 2017

Top 5 First Viewings
1. Your Name
2. Witness for the Prosecution
3. Pinocchio
4. Fast Five
5. Fast & Furious 6

I only did one rewatch in April, which was The Shawshank Redemption.

BaronLundi · May 1, 2017

Top first viewings

1. Elle
2. The invitation
3. L'Hermine (Courted)
4. Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder)

Divius · May 1, 2017

Icolin said:
rewatch all of the Alien movies before Covenant comes out.

I kind of want to do this, but I've seen the first two movies quite recently so I'd only be watching 3 & 4 and well... that idea does not excite me in the slightest. Probably will end up doing it though, last time I saw them was in 2010.

Speaking of the Alien franchise, I did already watch AvP the other day and ... I just like that movie. I have a weak spot for it. For all its faults, it is just a fun movie made with love for the franchise. There is some cool stuff and ideas in there as well.

lordxar · May 1, 2017

I love both AvP movies, faults and all. I think both went in good directions. Now I have to rewatch Prometheus which I'm kind of looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Covenant is coming quick...

Divius · May 1, 2017

I have banned the second AvP from my memory, I just remember it being super dark to the point where you could barely see what was going on.

Count Dookkake · May 1, 2017

AvP is legitimately good, despite being marginally hampered by the PG-13 rating.

Eff the haters.

Also, Anderson deserves more credit for championing diversity before it became cool.

lordxar · May 1, 2017

Yea the second was way too dark...but I still love it. I should get those on blu...

brandonh83 · May 1, 2017

A Monster Calls
A bit on the nose in some ways, but beautiful directing and storytelling from J.A. Bayona with solid performances across the board.

Underworld: Blood Wars
lol, but it at least gave me the most fucking stupid and unintentionally(?) hilarious bit of film I've seen in recent memory

BaronLundi · May 1, 2017

Just saw Carol.
Wow. Breathtakingly beautiful and rare in how it treats the characters, their story, their love and their fortunes with the utmost delicacy.

hampig · May 1, 2017

Your Name
Probably the last week it will be in any theaters near me, so I had to take my wife and catch a showing. I was a little bummed by the typical anime cheesiness considering people compared this movie to a Ghibli film, and those usually tend to keep that to a minimum. Montages set to Jrock, weird dialogue, dramatically vocalizing realizations and thoughts that were obvious to the viewer already. On top of that, the pace of the movie felt a little weird. It started off fairly slow, but by the end it felt like the movie was really dragging its feet. I wasn't super impressed by the story as a whole, but at least the characters were done fairly well and it definitely had charm.

The real reason to watch this movie though, is the visuals. It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. I was constantly in awe at the amount of time and effort that must have gone into making each and every scene. If you have a chance to see this at the theater, do it. The backgrounds were extraordinary, and while the characters were pretty typical designs, they animated very well. I'm really glad I saw this one on the big screen.

The Lobster
One of the weirdest movies I've seen in a long time. Absolutely excellent acting, first and foremost. I think most probably could agree on that. From there I think you'll hear vastly different things about this movie from person to person. Personally, I thought it was excellent. The slow drip of information that you had to piece together to make sense of everything was fun, the dark humor worked very well, and the message of the movie was conveyed very effectively. My wife didn't quite care to read into the message like I did, but she still enjoyed it just the same for what it was.

John Wick
I think everything that needs to be said about this movie has been said time and time again, but at the very least I want to say that I loved it. Very smart setup that gets you emotionally involved very quickly, great action that takes a quick and brutal approach, and a great world filled with secrets and glimpses of an interesting society.

My one problem with the movie, is that it would occasionally take time to do the "cool movie guy" stuff that you typically see in action movies. Things like dramatic 1v1's or Wick being a bit unnecessary in his taking out of a few people. This stuff stands out a lot more since so much of the movie is gritty, quick, and brutal compared to most things. I laughed and internally cheered when a big encounter was skipped because Wick just shot somebody in the face and moved on, but when he didn't do that to other characters and instead took his time, it brought me out of the experience a little. Still. Definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Moana
I'm not really a big Disney guy, but my sister-in-law wanted to watch Moana so we did. I enjoyed it. Nice, fun music, beautiful water effects, and fun characters. The overall plot was whatever, but the movie did get the occasional chuckle out of me. That's more than I expect from the modern animated Disney movie, so I was happy with it. It made me want to watch Hercules more than anything though, so I wasn't surprised to see it had the same director.

Moonrise Kingdom
My second watch, but my wife wanted to see it. Still a very interesting movie. Pretty excellent all around. If you've seen a Wes Anderson film before, you know what to expect. In my opinions it's his best, but I think it really comes down to personal preference, as he's done a lot of great stuff. I just really enjoy how straight it's played with the children taking on very mature roles, and the wackyness that surrounds it all.

PassiveObserver · May 1, 2017

Was on a couple long flights last week and caught 5 films total. Not the best viewing experience on that tiny screen in the back of the headrest, but having headphones on did force me to pay attention the entire time.

Fences *** - Solid prestige effort. Denzel commanded my attention, but ultimately I didn't connect emotionally with this.
Free Fire * - I fucked with Wheatley's last two films, but this was bad. Couldn't distinguish between the ensemble of characters nor following the shooting action.
Hell or High Water *** - Taut yet ruminative thriller, though it reminded me at times of 99 Homes, a film I hated, in the heavy-handed treatment of the biggest evil,

greed.

The Light Between the Oceans **1/2 - Derek Cianfrance is my homie, but this was a miss. Shot beautifully. I couldn't get behind either lead's motivations.
Jackie ***1/2 - My favorite of the bunch. Wish I had seen this on a larger screen. Huge fan of the set and sound design.

Baroquemantic · May 1, 2017

Top in April:

1. Split
2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
3. TMNT: Out of the Shadows
3. The Huntsman: Winter's War
3. Krampus
6. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Worst in April:

1. American Psycho II
2. Point Break (2015)

Ridley327 · May 1, 2017

Top 5 new watches of April, no particular order:
-Belladonna of Sadness
-Your Name.
-Miss Hokusai
-Paprika
-The Yellow Sea

Most valuable rewatch: tie, North by Northwest and Akira

The rare month in which everything I saw was at least good, too!

Cripplegate · May 1, 2017

Best new film seen in April: Vanessa Gould's Obit
Best rewatch of April: Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell
Best film about drifting and how best to drift in these troubled times: Justin Lin's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

And my first viewing of May...

Elevator to the Gallows (6.5/10) - Good for a debut but still quite obviously a debut. It's a little amateurish at times, both from a technical standpoint (when the power is turned back on while Tavernier is dangling below the elevator, for example, there is a sequence of three consecutive shots in which the elevator is clearly not moving in the second shot, despite moving in the first and third; it's a pretty egregious continuity error that could have been easily remedied) and a stylistic one (both the acting and the blocking in the motel garage scene, with Louis attempting to steal the car from the Germans, made me cringe, and was doubly disappointing for a film that already handled its opening murder sequence with excellent skill).

This isn't a bad film, and there's plenty that I loved (namely, some great cinematography and the absolutely amazing score from Miles Davis), but I also found it uneven. The subplot with Louis and Veronique was an obnoxious weak link. Structurally, of course, it all works, as everything is a piece of a larger moral, fatalistic noir puzzle, but I just couldn't stand those scenes on their own, or the way they were written, or any of the acting and dialogue (it got to the point where every time the action cut back to them, I started to roll my eyes). The conclusion is surprising only insofar as it is surprisingly pat (who knew the universe had such an outstanding sense of justice?).

It's incredibly jazzy and smooth and atmospheric though so it kinda feels like I'm nitpicking a bit. I guess the tl;dr version is that I liked it but it just didn't blow me away or anything.

lordxar · May 2, 2017

April was a good month with 29 entries and roughly half rewatches thanks to firing my Netflix sub back up. I did manage some good new watches though.

Top 5 new
1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the biggest surprise given all the shit this gets.
2. Under the Shadow
3. Spectral
4. The Void
5. Night of the Living Dead remake

Top 5 rewatches
1. Mortal Kombat I had forgotten how cool this was
2. Ghostbusters
3. Ghostbusters 2016
4. Swingers
5. Big Trouble in Little China

The biggest piece of shit I watched last month...hell all year so far is Yoga Hosers. Going to be hard to top this one but if I know me, I will try to find something that does...

Expendable. · May 2, 2017

Top 5 first views in April:

5) The Beguiled (1971)
4) Stolen Kisses
3) Rumble Fish
2) Tampopo
1) Le Boucher

HMs: Antoine and Colette, Bed & Board, Love on the Run, Hi, Mom!, Rat Film, Mimosas, The Trip to Spain, Slack Bay, and Five Came Back.

Also, my monthly preview: 15 Films to See in May (what are you watching?)

Hexxen-Panda · May 2, 2017

I haven't been able to watch a whole lot last month due to exams and Persona 5 lol

Ben-Hur (1959)

IMO, this has one of the GOAT film scores.

Still massively impressive even after seeing this dozens of times when I was 12. The power of the visual storytelling, aided by a striking use of a super widescreen format, still holds up to this day. More than just the impressive sets and extravagant budget, the way it handled the human story of revenge and redemption is touching and emotionally moving despite its melodramatic tendencies.

The chariot race scene is still breathtaking in its execution; the editing and cinematography in that scene keeps it timeless.

Yes, the film peaks at the chariot race, but the story after that point is still very effective thanks to the stirring music and terrific direction by William Wyler.

P.S.: The Blu-ray restoration is god-tier. Glorious transfer!

lordxar · May 2, 2017

A Field in England Trying to finish this but it's so far out in left field...lol...that it's a chore. Some cool visuals otherwise pretty meh for me. A little more coherent story would go a long way.

dickroach · May 2, 2017

I just got to see The Hudsucker Proxy on the big screen. I hadn't seen it in like 10 years, and I forgot how hilarious it was. definitely one of the Coens' best

Infernostew · May 2, 2017

I was doing real good but then didn't watch anything the last week in April.

Top 5 new watches in April:

1. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
2. Being John Malkovich
3. The Straight Story (Only Lynch film I hadn't seen)
4. Code Unknown
5. The Mutilator

Best Rewatch: Predator
Worst Rewatch: Predator 2

Icolin · May 2, 2017

Expendable. said:
Top 5 first views in April:

5) The Beguiled (1971)
4) Stolen Kisses
3) Rumble Fish
2) Tampopo
1) Le Boucher

HMs: Antoine and Colette, Bed & Board, Love on the Run, Hi, Mom!, Rat Film, Mimosas, The Trip to Spain, Slack Bay, and Five Came Back.

Also, my monthly preview: 15 Films to See in May (what are you watching?)

In preparation for Sofia Coppola's version, I assume?

Ridley327 · May 2, 2017

Mifune: The Last Samurai: A decent primer to the career of Mifune, though strangely lacking in depth. At a mere 80 minutes long, it was probably too much to ask for too much more than the obvious Kurosawa focus, but even that gets truncated in unexpected ways as it makes no attempt to do anything with the social dramas the two did together beyond footnotes. There is a bit of a explanation early on as the film goes over a short history of chanbara films to contextualize the kind of film that Mifune became world famous for, but I can't deny that I would have preferred a documentary that went into even more depth on the genre, as the archival footage of the surviving elements of those films was much more exciting. The personal details of Mifune's life, particularly those from before his time as an actor, also are of great interest, but the film suffers from having little footage and tape available of the man speaking up for himself, making the personal connection tough to understand whenever his eldest son isn't speaking up for him. And for the various anecdotes we do get, it honestly shocked me that they couldn't grab Tatsuya Nakadai for even one comment, despite the two frequently doing some of their best work together even away from Kurosawa and Nakadai himself still being very active these days. Such glaring omissions wound the doc, which in spite of its clear reverence for it central subject, never seems to be in any danger of being an authority on him.

mariachi507 · May 2, 2017

April Top Five New Watches

1. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
2. Harakiri
3. High and Low (Still need to do a write up)
4. Ikiru (This too)
5. Yojimbo

Top Rewatches

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rashomon
3. The Graduate
4. The Iron Giant

Overall, not much for the month in terms of quanity. However, quality wise I did just fine. Any month where Ikiru places fourth in your best new viewings is a damn fine month.

Fancy Clown · May 2, 2017

Damn, Mariachi, every one of your top 5 is number 1 material. Quality month for sure.

Divius · May 2, 2017

Infernostew said:
3. The Straight Story (Only Lynch film I hadn't seen)

This calls for a Lynch ranking!

Net_Wrecker · May 2, 2017

Fancy Clown said:
Damn, Mariachi, every one of your top 5 is number 1 material. Quality month for sure.

Except for that Yojimbo trash.

Now if it was The Last Samurai, the only true depiction of the bushido in cinematic history, it would obviously be top 5, if not top 1.

Expendable. · May 2, 2017

Icolin said:
In preparation for Sofia Coppola's version, I assume?

Yep! It screened at Metrograph. Made me even more excited for Coppola. The original is great, but can't wait to see what she does with it.

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