u.s.a. vs europe, chapter 1:

whit stillman’s BARCELONA (1994)




very funny on rewatch, enjoyed it better than in previous times, especially so soon after having rewatched METROPOLITAN last month.

usa vs europe, chapter 2:

linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE (1995)

this being june and whatever, it thought i’d rewatch this— it’s been ages and it made a huge impression on me back in the day.

and this now was... fucking boring! haa haa haa haa. i stopped maybe 1/2 hour into it? i also fell asleep. so i couldn’t tell the exact time. watching this today was like being a voyeur in a boring date full of gen-xer clichés. is it just me? this has aged so poorly. then again im way way past the impressionable phase.

i’m not really a cynic about these things, but these characters already married had kids divorced had an affair with each other have been in the dumps themselves as a couple, etc. and this now looks just ridiculous, like looking at all love letters you wrote to a girl when you were 16 and they make your laugh and cringe at the same time.

so yeah i didn’t finish and don’t plan to. i’d rather drink bleach than sit through this ha ha ha.

so instead watched this afternoon

nicholas ray’s REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)



i hadn’t seen tis before and i didnt know until recently that this was a nicholas ray movie. i like johnny guitar tons better which was my introduction to him (and i’ve seen a few times), and now i’ll have to look for more of his stuff... but this was still way better than i expected. visually, especially, and the main cast was awesome. natalie wood was great at protraying a disturbed chick. james dean and sal mineo great as well. this was good shit! those moving dutch angles were pretty awesome. i thought i was doing homework and putting a checkmark on a to-do list but enjoyed it tons. johnny guitar though, has no equal.

Yeah, I like RWaC but it's not one of Nicholas Ray's best. If you haven't seen it already, I'd definitely recommend In a Lonely Place.

yes... i’ve seen it but don’t recall tons of it except for gloria grahame being great in it. i could use a rewatch for sure... will pencil it in for the fall

Before Sunrise has always SUCKED. I hated that shit the moment it came out. I hated how people seemed to think it was so deep and amazingly evocative.

haa haaa haaa. i suppose as a ute i saw myself in ethan hawke’s place going bananas over julie delpy, cuz who doesn’t love meeting a french hottie on a train and having sex with her in a park and making a date for a year later? i used to have long distance relationships back then so im familiar with the logistics of transcontinental fucking. and this spoke to that as well.

and yes it is “evocative,” but that’s precisely what’s annoying for me today rather than 23 years ago. 23 years ago i said the same kind of stupid shit the guy says. i used books and records as magic items that pointed towards some ideal world we don’t inhabit on this earth. i had this semi-girlfriend (friend with benefits i guess) who was into cemeteries (oh, goth girls). i used to read poetry like taking my pharmaceuticals, and of course i loved dylan thomas. i would get high on culture and sex and dreams the same way those children in the movie do.

and it’s the fact that’s evocative that’s the problem with it for me now. it’s too fucking evocative. it’s cringeworthy. it’s like the national geographic with humans that they discuss at the beginning, just looking at people go through the motions of their boring lives, but here we see them go through the motions of a teenage date. okay not teenage, college age, same difference from my vantage point now, it all blurs into ridiculousness. except that teenage love is more direct and innocent whereas pseudointellectual college contortions are fake and unbearable.

i don’t ever wanna go back to a college or post-college-age date lolololol. so embarrassing!

just to be contrary now i might try to watch it again from an anthropological perspective. since i can no longer be the horny naive young person smitten with julie delpy anyway.

but there’s something about linklater’s documentary tendencies that’s worth highlighting. slackers, where the camera just moves on and on going through people and looking at pieces of their random everyday lives. or boyhood— did you see boyhood? following a kid growing up? it’s a crazy project. has more dramatic structure than this though. but yeah. his documentary impulse which in the words of one of his characters is “the poetry of everyday lives”.

the poetry of a stereotypical college date? ha ha ha ha. no poetry that i can see anymore except for teh signifiers of a certain age, but the documentary is still there. maybe it’s not poetry but just bowel movements.

Re-watched Radio Days last night.

Very lightweight but still one of my faves, even if it is just Amarcord relocated to Brooklyn.

i have heard the name “goodbye mr. chips” since foerever, i finally get a chance to watch it—peter o’toole is in it!

and it turns out...

it’s a fuckin musical, and so annoying.

gaaaah!

im giving before sunrise a second shot—just to spite cheeto! haahaaahaaahaaa

the day before yesterday: Alien Resurrection
yesterday: The Last Waltz


I was very disappointed that there were no chestbusters in it. There should be chestbusters in every movie

afterwards i googled the name “dawn davenport” (one only has to dream what this movie would have been on the internet age) and i found this shit:

https://mobile.twitter.com/DawnDavenportTN

yeah right! ha ha ha ha

not even

Great Filmmaker!






Binging on some ethnofiction. Jean Rouch was a genius and very distinctive filmmaker!

whoa! toko is back! great!

thanks for posting that. have not even heard of the guy! i think... so thanks

and yeah i need more campion

—

anyway watched this morning OCEANS 11 (1960, not the remake)



pretty fun and while some outdated things were cringeworthy it was still mostly cool. a little slow by today’s standards. on the other hand fun to see an era when grownups were grownups. my favorite thing were the saul bass credits though.

embarrasingly, finally saw some shit i had managed to elude for ages



dirty dancing. terrible movie and so much horrible 80s music my ears are bleedin’

well finally i can say i know what im talking about when i say this movie sucks ha ha ha haaaa

but i finally managed to see this shit in context



too many absurdities to count. i had some laughs at the involuntary comedy though.

worst fucking music ever tho. fucksakes.

Does it make Before Sunrise feel like Citizen Kane, in comparison?

haaa haaaa yes

but now im watching no retreat no surrender on youtube, which makes the previous atrocity look like la dolce vita haaaa haaa haaaaa

so... no retreat no surrender... van damme’s first credited feature film



started with the rifftrax version seen above but soon felt that the commentary was trying too hard, and the movie was ridiculous enough on its own and needed no additions, so i went for the original, which is on youtube with out of sync dialogue (perfect).

it was the biggest turd i’ve seen in ages, but it was so bad it was funny instead of painful... and yeah, i enjoyed the experience.

i used to know a dude who liked this movie in earnest. like, he took it seriously and all. imagine that!

I started Annihilation last night. Bout to finish.

Damn good so far, if missing plenty of Golden horror opportunities from the book

Speaking of Before Sunrise, found this in the totes in my closet this weekend.


https://cloudup.com/cv0V7tLHS54