What have you watched recently? 3D!

I've been doing some reading about AI, and saw recommendations for Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), which I watched today. The USA entrusts its national defense to an impenetrable supercomputer named Colossus, taking it out of human hands in a kind-of Mutually-Assured Destruction (MAD) scenario that is supposed to deter Russia from attacking the USA. Problem is, Colossus immediately discovers its Russian counterpart computer, Guardian, and the two computers start discussing what to do about these pesky humans ..!

Didjenjoyit?

@bnt/

I‘ll have to check it out now. Thanks!

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David Lynch season at my local cinema:

Eraserhead – 5/5

This is exactly how I imagine my attempt at Parenthood would go.

The revolutionary sound design is still as potent as it was back in 1977.

The Elephant Man – 5/5

I had seen this before and already considered it to be a masterpiece, but that previous viewing was on a **** old TV with crap speakers. Seeing this in the cinema was one of my all-time favourite theatre experiences and one of the films that benefitted most from the big screen treatment.

The worldbuilding of Lynch’s Victorian London is some of the best you’ll ever see. The smog of heavy industry runs thick throughout, to the point where you half expect to leave the cinema with black gunk under your fingernails or to be mining your nasal cavity for thick soot bogeys on the way home. The location's work was a case of perfect timing. They were lucky enough to shoot at genuine Victorian-era London locations that remained preserved until very shortly after filming. Almost like it was meant to be.

People often say that this is Lynch’s most normal/accessible film, and whilst they’re quite right, they often say it as if it doesn’t feature any of Lynch’s trademarks. This is not the case at all. It is littered with many of the recurring elements that make Lynch’s work stand out, such as the camera lurking into a sinister-looking abyss. It being bookended by surrealist sequences (that the studio wanted to cut from the final edit), it carries over the industrial churning and oppressive sound design that featured so heavily in Eraserhead, and his lo-fi style of image manipulation is also on display. Lynch’s obsession with electricity obviously couldn’t appear as this is set in the late 1800s, but the intrigue in electricity is substituted with Victorian-era gas lamps. It’s also dripping with empathy, which is one of the main recurring themes throughout Lynch’s work. The most Lynchian thing though, is the scene where Merrick gets invited over for dinner. Here we see Merrick break down upon being greeted by Hopkins Wife, and then she, in turn, breaks down as he speaks of how he must have been a disappointment to his mother. It is one of the most fucked-up and heartbreakingly beautiful scenes in cinema.

Mel Brooks deserves a lot of plaudits in his role as producer. To watch Eraserhead and to have the foresight that Lynch would be the right person to adapt this material is staggering. There’s a great quote from Lynch when he talks of being lined up to direct and then being told by Brooks that he is going to watch Eraserhead first to see if he’s the right guy;

“Well, it’s been nice knowing you guys”.

To his amazement, this didn’t put Brooks off. He called Lynch “a Madman” and proceeded with him at the helm. Brooks was selfless enough to keep his name out of all promotion as he didn’t want the audience to go in expecting a comedy.

Lynch described working with Mel Brooks as “sort of close to heaven”. Mel was able to put together a cast that was “beyond the beyond”, according to Lynch, who was awestruck by the elite level of British talent that was assembled for him to work with. “You couldn’t dream up a better cast.”

And he’s right. Hopkins is perfect as an enthusiastic doctor who becomes wrought with conflict. Freddie Jones and Michael Elphick put in two superb and contrasting villain performances, but it’s John Hurt who steals the show with a tour de force performance. A lot gets said about his physicality and how he manages to elicit such raw emotion from beneath all that make-up, but it’s his vocal work that stood out to me on this watch. I guess spending 8 hours in make-up a day gives you a lot of headspace and room to practice.

All in all, it’s a flawless masterpiece and you should jump at the chance to see this on the big screen.

Wild at Heart – 4/5

The last time I’ll ever see a pure, uncompromised Lynch film on the big screen for the first time. It didn’t disappoint. I was surprised at how Twin Peaksy it was in places. It almost felt like a bit of a bridge between Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. 

The demented lead role couldn’t have been pulled off by anyone other than Cage. I like the fact that the snakeskin suit he wore was his own. The stand outs for me though were Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. This is the best I’ve ever seen from Dern. Her performance annoyed my Wife as she kept “playing with her too much” and it was “unnatural” (yeah, I know) but as I said to her, Lynch doesn’t want natural, he wants demented fever-dream, and those weird mannerisms are how we remember people in memories and dreams. Even though nothing technically happens, the ‘rape’ scene between Dafoe and Dern is more affecting than some of the more graphic rape scenes out there. It was a toss up between this scene and Isabella Rossellini's eyebrows for the most disturbing thing in the film.

There's me watching the opening credits thinking "oh cool, it will be interesting to see Lynch working with Crispin Glover" They seems like a match made in heaven. Then we get served up... that lol

"You have cockroaches in your butt"

Like most Lynch films, I can only see myself liking this more and more on future rewatches, but it’s not quite top tier for me just yet.  

Blue Velvet – 5/5

I feel that the opening 20-30 minutes to be slightly laborious on a rewatch, which is something I don’t get with any of his other films, but from the moment we enter Dorothy’s apartment it’s just as absorbing as ever. The sinister nature of Hopper’s terrifying performance (which I have down as the GOAT villain performance in cinema) combined with Lynch’s mad imagery burrows its way under your skin like no other. 

The In Dreams sequence at Ben’s brothel is one of my favourite sequences in all of cinema, so I had to restrain my rage when someone in the audience decided that was the optimum moment to go for a piss. 

“What a raw deal Einstein must have had, **** morons everywhere.”

Mulholland Drive – 5/5

Lynch film #5 on the big screen and the end of this little run. It’s been a privilege to see these in the cinema and they are experiences I shall not forget in a hurry.

This was my 4th rewatch and I now have a good handle on what it all means. It’s actually quite straightforward for the most part. 

The scene in club Silencio with cinema surround sound was majestic. 

A true one of a kind. A radical creative genius that we will never see the likes of again. He will always be #1 in my books. 

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Burn After Reading

Brad Pitt is 1 of 1 in this movie, no performance like it anywhere. I love the line Clooney can toe between suave and bumbling idiot, John Malkovich is the best swearer in Hollywood. Linda is the heart of the movie, I genuinely felt bad for her at points thanks to how Frances McDormand portrayed that desperation.

This is by far the funniest Coen Brothers movie; Brad Pitt's expressions, the reveal of Clooney's secret project, the cutaways to JK Simmons & Co. trying to figure out why any of this is happening or what it could mean, just brilliant. Trying to blackmail someone with a copy of their memoirs that you mistake for "secret CIA shít" is a plot that feels straight out of Always Sunny.

5/5

Natural Born Killers

Bizarre, made me feel sick, made me feel gross, but I really enjoyed it. Can 100% understand those who hate this movie but it just had me enthralled, definitely one I'll be watching again soon.

4/5

A Real Pain

A bittersweet movie. It does bring up some aspects about that kind of tourism and life, in general, that are worth mentioning, i.e. living the moments and experiences as opposed to reeling off facts.

An impressive performance from Kieran Culkin. There's little new about the comedic aspect of his character, he's like a less needy version of Roman in Succession, but in his darker moments, he taps into something I didn't know he had. Eisenberg played his role well.

It's an enjoyable film and also one packed with feeling. Definitely recommended.

Robocop remake- A bit of a pointless film and not a patch on the original. Didn't have the gritty violence, the excellent satirical adverts and the charismatic villains from the original. The Murphy actor was quite unlikeable and seemed to just gun unarmed people down when he was a cop. He did feck all crimefighting too, far too many scenes set in the lab. Gary Oldman is wasted in this but Michael Keaton does a good job as the ruthless CEO of Omnicorp. One more thing that annoyed me is that they have nerfed the ED-209 who was my favourite from the first film.

Saw Sinners in the cinema. Had been looking forward to it for a while and wasn't disappointed. It's a great genre movie - From Dusk to Dawn crossed with Ring Shout crossed with Lovecraft Country - but also just a great movie, full stop. Strong cast, music integrated into the film brilliantly, and plot progression that took me, at least, by surprise. It also looked beautiful - one for teh big screen if possible.

Better watch it before the tarrifs kick in.

The seed of the sacred Fig.

NDrama set in Iran where a family are plunged into conflict when the Father gets a promotion as a prosecuter for the Iranian regime while his young teenage daughters begin to be drawn to youth protest movements rebelling against it.

Enjoyed it , splices actual footage of protests , riots and government violent crackdown in with the Movie which gave it a levity.

I only saw it a few months ago myself. Great fun, scuzzy punky feel to it and totally bonkers.

one could argue he only made 1 good film which was his first one “Shopping”