I think I may be the only person besides Winterbottom himself who liked 9 Songs for the music and concert footage as well as the sex.
Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Some of the reviewers seemed to like those sections much more than the sex, too.
I barely remember it now, but I remember wishing it were better, because I really liked the premise and the actors.
Yeah, I think it was maybe me filling in the spaces, because it was a less is more kinda of film, if you get me. I also just recently read Nekropolis by Maureen McHugh, which happens to be about an oppressive, slightly futuristic society, with an against all odds "love" story, written in a slightly surrealistic fashion. Huh.
I saw The Notorious Bettie Page last night. It was buoyed by a wonderful performance by Gretchen Mol and a couple of lively supporting folk. There were some deliberate stylistic choices in terms of narrative and use of stock footage and acting style which violently divided the folks in our party. People seemed to either kinda like it--or at least to think the choices were interesting--or HATE it. We ran into Eli Roth, writer/director of scary-type movies, in the lobby (who the BF knows a bit) and he was incredibly vocal, actually rather obnoxious, in his dislike. Funny thing, his glamorous Hollywood date was ... his parents.
I kinda liked Amanda Bynes' character in Robots. I don't remember why.
Basically, though, if you're not watching it on IMAX, probably no reason to watch it. It was good for the pretty (especially considering I was almost a Computer Graphics major, and the method that that company - they also made Ice Age - uses for CG is, in my opinion, even gorgeouser than Pixar's method).
MSN did their Top 10 Scariest Movies Ever:
10. Blair Witch Project
9. The Uninvited
8. The Ring
7. The Innocents
6. The Others
5. The Tenant
4. Don't Look Now
3. Carnival of Souls
2. The Shining
1. The Haunting (1963)
Discuss.
(My immediate two cents: I didn't find BWP scary at all, and I'd include Suspiria. )
BWP freaked me out completely. In the beginning, I was rather bored, but the tension got ramped up in the last hour and by the final run through the old house, my sister and I were practically pounding on each other's forearms (last time we did that was for Poltergeist). I didn't quite get what the guy was doing in the final shot, but as the lights came up, my sister stared at me with wide eyes and said, "He was standing in the corner, facing the wall!!!" and I put it together and shrieked, "Oh, my God!"
I wouldn't watch it again, though, just because I know I couldn't get that same feeling a second time.
Sad thing about that list is that the only other film I've seen on it was The Others, and that was the edited-for-TV version on TBS.
I saw The Ring, The Others and The Shining.
I thought The Others really cool, but not that frightening. And The Ring didn't scare me until afterwards. I'd have to add Audition and Santa Sangre to my personal list.
I love The Ring, The Others, and The Shining. I did not love BWP though the last scene WAS almost worth the entire experience (had the theater been less than 90 degrees, thereby doubling the feeling of motion sickness, it might have been entirely worth it.)
I would put The Exorcist on there.
And if the 1963 Haunting is scarier than The Shining, then I'm not sure I can ever see it. I STILL get random nightmares about that movie, love it though I do.
Carnival of Souls is probably the scariest movie on that list for me, and I've seen all of them except The Uninvited.
I didn't find The Haunting that frightening, except for that scene in which Julie Harris and Claire Bloom are clutching each other's hands while some unknown evil being bangs on the door, then Claire Bloom later tells Julie that she *wasn't* holding her hand, and Julie is all, "OMG THEN WHAT WAS HOLDING MY HAND?" Freaky. Also, that film has lesbian subtext like whoa now that I think back on it. It's been a while since I've seen it. Time for a rewatch, I think.