skyline

Surviving Life - Jan Svankmajer

It's not the latest film I've seen, but it's the latest I've seen that's worthy of note. After watching Institute Benjamenta and Lunacy I've fallen in love with Svankmajer and Brother's Quay's films (Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes is a must for fans of the avant-garde). While these are most certainly art-house films (which you'd expect if you've ever seen his adaption of Alice In Wonderland), Svankmajer doesn't seem to appreciate the label so much, striving to make his works as unpretentious as possible and outright explaining what it is he's set out to achieve at the beginning of his films.


Surviving Life follows a man, Eugene, who becomes troubled by recurring vivid dreams of a strange woman, he is then referred to a psychiatrist who specialises in dream analysis. As the psychiatrist tries to solve what it is that's troubling his sub-concious, Eugene instead only wishes for help invoking the dreams with no intention of solving any problems, cheating on his wife with the literal woman of his dreams. Undeterred the psychiatrist continues to pick away at Eugenes dreams finally solving who this woman is and what's been eating away at Eugene in a haunting climax that you probably won't forget in a hurry. Definitely worth a watch if you're looking for something a little different.

GuD

Never got around to seeing this when it came out. Just finished watching it and have barely a clue as to what I saw. It was entertaining for sure, definitely had some really deep moments but I just didn't get it. I'm gonna watch it again soon and probably pick up the book, it's pretty interesting it just obviously takes more than one go to get what it's about.

__________________
I spit bullets in my feet
Every time I speak
So I write instead
And still people want me dead
~msc

bob.

^reincarnation

gonna have to add Surviving Life to my list...and move it quickly to the top....i loved his version of Faust and Alice

__________________
A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.

GuD

I caught that theme but was a little overwhelmed by all the quick shifts with one storyline to the next. Wasn't totally prepared for a heavy movie-watching experience and wound up mostly just paying attention to the one about the gay musician and his lover and the one with Tom Hanks on the island.

Completely unrelated- Halle Berry is almost in her 50s and still looks like she's 20something in every movie.

__________________
I spit bullets in my feet
Every time I speak
So I write instead
And still people want me dead
~msc

Exo

Blue Ruin

Revenge stories. You thought that they couldn’t do anther one that is both unique and engaging but along comes “Blue Ruin” to prove that it isn’t true. It’s been a pretty great year for film so far and while I didn’t get a chance to see this is a theater, I’m still glad I was able to watch it on DVD. There are some films from three years ago that still haven’t managed a DVD release and thankfully this wasn’t one of them.

The film stars Macon Blair, who is almost a split image of Nathan Lane, as Dwight, a homeless man living out of his car on the shores of Delaware. It’s pretty much inferred off the bat that Dwight is troubled by something as he makes no attempt at panhandling or other form of making money. He doesn’t like people and he likes to keep it that way. A friendly police officer brings Dwight in to inform him that a certain person is getting out of jail and the story slowly begins to unfold from there. I say slowly mostly because I mean just that. Jeremy Saulnier took great care with his breakthrough film, telling the story in a slow burning and delicately paced fashion. We aren’t getting spoon fed details and I had to rewind the film twice to make sure I caught turns in the plot. The film has minimal dialogue as our protagonist Dwight is very soft spoken and a lot of the film takes place with only him.

Saulnier, who started his career as a cinematographer, composes some pretty beautiful shots in a barren Virginian landscape. They way he approached the violence reminded me of another filmmaker, Ben Wheatly, in which what we get isn’t stylized, but rather highly realistic. There were some real shockingly violent moments in this film that just hit harder due to the realism.

Saulnier is a promising filmmaker that should be due some serious budget for his next film. That is the way Hollywood is going now. You have Josh Trank, Gareth Edwards, James Gunn, and Rian Johnson all at the helm of big franchises. It’s only a matter of time before a talent such as Saulnier gets his due and if it is anything like Blue Ruin, I’m going to like it.

4/5

Exo

I just watched Snowpiercer. I'm going to write it up tomorrow.

SEE THIS MOVIE. It's on VOD right now for like seven bucks and well worth it. Hell, it's still in some theaters. You have no excuse bob. It's a riot and also incredibly badass. Watch it.

Sparky

the abyss.

Probably the worst james cameron flick. It's clear cameron just wanted to build a fun submarine world he could play in and wrap a movie around. Some super lame aliens. Bland unmemorable characters. Film looked great. Felt at times like "aliens" in underwater, minus well the cool aliens.

Scarlett O'Hara

I watched The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas for the second time. So sad.

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Janszoon

They aren't aliens. Also, that movie is great, second only to the Terminator movies and Aliens in his catalog IMO.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

bob.

I did see it in the theater a couple of weeks ago...just lazy

and yeah I loved it also

__________________
A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.