Apparently movies actually expire from being on instant watch. Damn.
Yep. A lot of stuff they have is through Starz, and if Starz lets the rights drop Netflix loses it. It may get better after the recent Epix and NBC deals, though.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
Apparently movies actually expire from being on instant watch. Damn.
Yep. A lot of stuff they have is through Starz, and if Starz lets the rights drop Netflix loses it. It may get better after the recent Epix and NBC deals, though.
And some of the rights they have are for limited times with an option to renew. Sometimes something will expire and then reappear the next day.
I wrote a note about something while watching Midnight Run, but then I lost it and I don't remember what was on it. Which just means I'll have to watch it again sometime in the future to remember.
Excited about next week. Are you working on that essay, Preacher? You better be! That movie is on the top of queue, all ready to get watched.
There are many David Mamet movies out there, the excellent GlennGary Glen Ross, The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, Ronin, even a misfire like Red Belt has great moments in it. But for me above all else the definitive Mamet movie is Spartan.
This is the world of Spartan, you’re introduced to this movie abruptly, Mamet does not take the time to hold your hand, explanations/motives/what’s going on, these are rewards the audience gets for paying attention. I’m not going to link a trailer because this movie is best watched without an idea of what is going on, and the trailer gives away too much. Go in blind and you’ll get more out of it. The basic delivery here is that Val Kilmer is a government agent sent to aquire a very important persons missing child, and the movie spirals from there.
The one thing you’ll notice from the clips I have provided is how abrupt the dialogue is, these aren’t characters going to explain their every motive. A trademark of Mamet is that smart rapid fire dialogue, its like catching a glimpse of real people going about their lives (although stylized of course I’ve dealt with real estate agents, aside from the language none of the agents I’ve dealt with our half as intelligent as Glenngary makes them out). Spartan takes this to the ex military, current military, behind the scenes government world of half truths, and implied obedience. One thing you’ll notice about Mamet films in general and Spartan in particular is that his characters don’t have much of a backstory, there is implication, maybe a sentence outside of the current conversation, but Mamet as a writer and director believes in acting what’s on the page. This creates a more realistic sense of characters for me, they don’t go into long monologues about who they are or what they are doing, they just do it.
Direction by Mamet is tight, shots linger, music is sparsely used and not looney tunes, most of the movie takes place at night, or low light, but its not difficult to follow what’s on camera. Action is well directed, the shooting parts are brief, this is not a John Woo action movie. One thing I appreciate from Mamet here is there is not a lot of/any shakey cam. It would only detract in a movie like this where they expect you to pay attention.
Acting wise you have a fantastic main in Val Kilmer, good supporting cast from William H. Macy, Ed O’neil, David Paymer, Clark Gregg, and Kristin Bell. I liked how for this movie they went with more that guys then a star infused cast like Glenngary.
Overall Spartan is part spy thriller, part who done it, and part snappy dialogue, shooken up with a cynical world view and delivered like a karate kick to the balls. Enjoy!
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I really enjoying watching In Relentless Pursuit of The Girl (Where is she?!), but I must stop talking about this minute to share an anecdote. I was looking around Mamet's wiki page where I saw under his writing something listed as Sexual Perversity in Chicago Squirrels. Fascinating! I must acquire this, post-haste! But wait, did I read that right? No. It was "Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Squirrels." Two titles written in the same year, and therefore listed together.
I really wanted to know what those dirty squirrels were doing.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited October 2010
Spartan is an excellent movie. I love it when movies just go; no hand-holding, no expository bullshit. It gives you about two minutes at the start to find your bearings and then the clock starts ticking and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Spartan is an excellent movie. I love it when movies just go; no hand-holding, no expository bullshit. It gives you about two minutes at the start to find your bearings and then the clock starts ticking and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Spartan is an excellent movie. I love it when movies just go; no hand-holding, no expository bullshit. It gives you about two minutes at the start to find your bearings and then the clock starts ticking and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Yeah one of my favorite lines describing mamet characters is in Heist, when Sam Rockwell asks del roy lindo about Gene Hackman "He was born, he lived, he died." paraphrased of course.
If you can find it Mamet wrote a book about acting (mainly stage but it applies overall) its fairly short but had a lot of great advice.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Heist is a great film. I should look into this Mamet guy, I guess.
Its one of my favorite Gene Hackman films, because you get both kinds of hackman. Asshole Hackman, and subtle quiet hackman. Plus Danny Devito being an evil little troll.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Spartan is an excellent movie. I love it when movies just go; no hand-holding, no expository bullshit. It gives you about two minutes at the start to find your bearings and then the clock starts ticking and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Spartan is an excellent movie. I love it when movies just go; no hand-holding, no expository bullshit. It gives you about two minutes at the start to find your bearings and then the clock starts ticking and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Yeah one of my favorite lines describing mamet characters is in Heist, when Sam Rockwell asks del roy lindo about Gene Hackman "He was born, he lived, he died." paraphrased of course.
If you can find it Mamet wrote a book about acting (mainly stage but it applies overall) its fairly short but had a lot of great advice.
I actually have that book and yeah, it is excellent. He did another one about writing that is also really useful. I really like his no-nonsense perspective even when I don't agree with his specific recommendations.
So due to travel, I haven't had a chance to watch Spartan until now. And it was excellent. Once it starts, it simply doesn't stop.
I always recommend knowing little about the movie itself, because thats how I first saw it (friend worked at a theater said it looked good, and tickets were free). That's one reason I didn't include the trailer, because it gives away, way way too much.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
...that's the one that always really startles people. And it's why I love him, and it's why I love Blue Velvet.
See, even in the best of times, but especially nowadays, there's a perception on both sides of an adversarial relationship between artists and audiences. Artists often think audiences are cattle who don't know what they want and need to be shaken out of their complacency. Audiences often think artists are assholes who just want to get a rise out of them. Both of these things are, unfortunately, sometimes true. A lot of artists are dicks. And a lot of people are missing out on stuff that they'd really like, or would really help them be happier or more successful in life, because they don't want to venture from what's comfortable.
This puts us in a sad situation where - well, try it yourself. Tell someone you want to take them to an "art movie" and watch their dick shrivel and fall off. Watch their face fall and their brain race as they devise excuses. They think it's going to be work, or boring. You may as well have asked them to mow your yard.
And yeah, sometimes they're right. But other times they're wrong. And in the place where they're most wrong is the place David Lynch calls home.
Blue Velvet was Lynch's fourth feature film and while it would be presumptuous for me to say that it encompasses all the ideas and images he's built up in his film career, it definitely makes a good approximation of it.
It's set in a fictional Pacific Northwest town called Lumberton, modeled on Lynch's own home of Spokane. College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns home from school to look after his father, who's recently had a heart attack. Jeffrey's a bright, good-looking, wholesome kid as played by Kyle Machlachlan, and he has an idyllic suburban home and a family who dote on him. It's a wonderful life.
Until, crossing a field on a walk home, he stumbles across a severed human ear. That ear, and Jeffrey's quest to solve the mystery of its owner, will lead him into a netherworld of sex and violence that he never knew existed.
Investigating the mystery of the ear, Jeffrey will meet a friendly but concerned police detective, the detective's beautiful and wholesome high-school age daughter (Laura Dern), an exotic and mysterious lounge singer (Isabella Rossellini), a transvestite drug dealer (Dean Stockwell), and, perhaps most memorably, Frank Booth, a psychotically dangerous criminal mastermind played with immortal gusto by the late Dennis Hopper.
Frank Booth is like Lynch's hometown version of the Joker - a wildly unpredictable psychopath who can swing from manic dancing to sobbing to brutal violence in a few seconds. He's a dynamo, barely standing still for a second - and on the rare occasions when he does stand still, we see his face twisting and contorting with agony, an animal caged in his own body. Everything he does in the movie is laced with violence: he's a drug dealer and a hit man, but he's also a sexual criminal, and the cruelties we see him inflict form the basis for most of the film's scandalous reputation.
Drawn into this netherworld first by his eager schoolboy curiosity and later by his fascination with Frank and what he represents, Jeffrey finds it hard to leave. He discovers things - things about his idyllic hometown and what goes on after dark, things about sex and what he might like to do during sex; scary things that he is certain he can never tell the pure and wholesome high school girl he's falling in love with.
When the movie came out, some critics were outraged. They thought it was trying to offend them - some snobby artist making fun of wholesome American suburbs by showing them as hidden dens of depravity. They thought the movie indulged in scenes of sexual violence and terror to titillate and exploit.
They didn't get that David Lynch is an Eagle Scout.
Watch this movie and tell me if it exploits anything, or insults anyone. This might be the most old-fashioned, moralistic movie you'll see all year. It's a movie about growing up, about leaving the nest and discovering all the pleasures and terror of the world - about gaining wisdom, becoming a man, and confronting evil.
For every scary or violent thing in it, Lynch finds something to show us that is weird and beautiful. That's the other thing about the movie: if you're wondering why something is happening, why a particular scene is playing out the way it is, look at the screen. Look at what's happening with the light, or the fall of a gown on a beautiful actress's figure, or the way a camera angle makes a particular dancing girl seem silly and lonely and sad all at once.
See, David Lynch isn't trying to rock your world, or convert your politics, or anything like that. All he wants is for you to look around and see the world for a few minutes. He doesn't have to invent the weird shit he shows us: it's all there, every day. Spooky cow skulls. Rich red drapes. Beautiful white fences and manicured lawns. Muscle cars. Gorgeous young girls and handsome young men. Wise and sad grown-ups. Evil and violent people and the lost souls they prey on. It's all right there, and it's all right here, too - and my bet is that if you'll indulge us and take this two-hour trip to Lumberton, USA, you'll find that the place you've really come is home.
JG Ballard rated Blue Velvet as the best film of the eighties. It's fucking wonderful.
It is arguably the film that started the modern indie movement
80s indie movies were my favorite, because back then "indie" just meant "not made by a studio" instead of "has a certain tone and certain actors and certain bands." There wasn't any expectation about what an indie movie was supposed to be in terms of content and style. You'd have a hard time finding three modern indie flicks nearly as diverse as Blue Velvet, Repo Man, and Matewan are from each other.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
So I had never seen Blue Velvet. Always kinda put it off. And that was something. I kinda wonder how much of Lynch is in Jeffery.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited October 2010
My guess is quite a bit.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
The character really was a boy scout.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
He was, yeah. I've read discussions on the film that treat him like he's some sort of closet creep - like discovering an interest in moderately kinky sex is the absolute worst thing in the world. I think it's just the opposite, he comes out the movie more of a complete, wiser person but with that same scoutlike idealism and resourcefulness.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
He was, yeah. I've read discussions on the film that treat him like he's some sort of closet creep - like discovering an interest in moderately kinky sex is the absolute worst thing in the world. I think it's just the opposite, he comes out the movie more of a complete, wiser person but with that same scoutlike idealism and resourcefulness.
I kinda saw it as a metaphor for a small town boy encountering the depraved depths of the city to come out altered but still the same in many ways.
I'm not saying you should watch Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite.
I just think you all should know that there's a movie out there called Dark Kumite, and you could watch it on instant watch if you were so inclined.
Which you shouldn't be.
So bad.
SO GOOD
Hahaha.
I do want to read Frank Dux's "autobiography" sometime. Apparently it has first-hand anecdotes about being stalked through the streets of Hong Kong by dozens of ninjas.
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
I love blue velvet
the scene in frank's friends apartment blew my mind apart
the scene in frank's friends apartment blew my mind apart
and phenomenal use of music throughout
yeah, that whole scene with the song was just :shock:
The weird and creepy beauty of this song, the weird and creepy dude singing it, and then Frank off to the side chewing his lip and looking like he's either going to cry or kill someone. It rivets me every single time.
And I think Lynch is pretty great with music in general. Definitely the music was a huge part of the atmosphere and the appeal of Twin Peaks.
Heh. I fell behind, and am just now getting to Spartan. One of the characters in the supporting cast looked very familiar, and it drove me batty for about 15 minutes: Clark Gregg played Agent Coulson in Iron Man films.
Heh. I fell behind, and am just now getting to Spartan. One of the characters in the supporting cast looked very familiar, and it drove me batty for about 15 minutes: Clark Gregg played Agent Coulson in Iron Man films.
Yeah, Clark Gregg is a fantastic character actor who keeps turning up in the most random things.
Posts
Yep. A lot of stuff they have is through Starz, and if Starz lets the rights drop Netflix loses it. It may get better after the recent Epix and NBC deals, though.
And some of the rights they have are for limited times with an option to renew. Sometimes something will expire and then reappear the next day.
Cause I think that would be a swell idea that I would be interested in.
If someone wants to organize that, I'll post it in the OP. I didn't for now because it seems like getting times to work for everyone would be tricky.
Excited about next week. Are you working on that essay, Preacher? You better be! That movie is on the top of queue, all ready to get watched.
There are many David Mamet movies out there, the excellent GlennGary Glen Ross, The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, Ronin, even a misfire like Red Belt has great moments in it. But for me above all else the definitive Mamet movie is Spartan.
Set your Mother Fucker To Receive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJVPBVnki4&feature=related
This is the world of Spartan, you’re introduced to this movie abruptly, Mamet does not take the time to hold your hand, explanations/motives/what’s going on, these are rewards the audience gets for paying attention. I’m not going to link a trailer because this movie is best watched without an idea of what is going on, and the trailer gives away too much. Go in blind and you’ll get more out of it. The basic delivery here is that Val Kilmer is a government agent sent to aquire a very important persons missing child, and the movie spirals from there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QtkhYD14nw&feature=related
The one thing you’ll notice from the clips I have provided is how abrupt the dialogue is, these aren’t characters going to explain their every motive. A trademark of Mamet is that smart rapid fire dialogue, its like catching a glimpse of real people going about their lives (although stylized of course I’ve dealt with real estate agents, aside from the language none of the agents I’ve dealt with our half as intelligent as Glenngary makes them out). Spartan takes this to the ex military, current military, behind the scenes government world of half truths, and implied obedience. One thing you’ll notice about Mamet films in general and Spartan in particular is that his characters don’t have much of a backstory, there is implication, maybe a sentence outside of the current conversation, but Mamet as a writer and director believes in acting what’s on the page. This creates a more realistic sense of characters for me, they don’t go into long monologues about who they are or what they are doing, they just do it.
Direction by Mamet is tight, shots linger, music is sparsely used and not looney tunes, most of the movie takes place at night, or low light, but its not difficult to follow what’s on camera. Action is well directed, the shooting parts are brief, this is not a John Woo action movie. One thing I appreciate from Mamet here is there is not a lot of/any shakey cam. It would only detract in a movie like this where they expect you to pay attention.
Acting wise you have a fantastic main in Val Kilmer, good supporting cast from William H. Macy, Ed O’neil, David Paymer, Clark Gregg, and Kristin Bell. I liked how for this movie they went with more that guys then a star infused cast like Glenngary.
Overall Spartan is part spy thriller, part who done it, and part snappy dialogue, shooken up with a cynical world view and delivered like a karate kick to the balls. Enjoy!
pleasepaypreacher.net
I really wanted to know what those dirty squirrels were doing.
plus nearly naked Kristen Bell
Yeah one of my favorite lines describing mamet characters is in Heist, when Sam Rockwell asks del roy lindo about Gene Hackman "He was born, he lived, he died." paraphrased of course.
If you can find it Mamet wrote a book about acting (mainly stage but it applies overall) its fairly short but had a lot of great advice.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Its one of my favorite Gene Hackman films, because you get both kinds of hackman. Asshole Hackman, and subtle quiet hackman. Plus Danny Devito being an evil little troll.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I hear she was raised by wolves
Not like my girlfriend, Cassiopeia
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
I actually have that book and yeah, it is excellent. He did another one about writing that is also really useful. I really like his no-nonsense perspective even when I don't agree with his specific recommendations.
I always recommend knowing little about the movie itself, because thats how I first saw it (friend worked at a theater said it looked good, and tickets were free). That's one reason I didn't include the trailer, because it gives away, way way too much.
pleasepaypreacher.net
David Lynch is an Eagle Scout.
For a guy known for things like this:
and this:
...that's the one that always really startles people. And it's why I love him, and it's why I love Blue Velvet.
This puts us in a sad situation where - well, try it yourself. Tell someone you want to take them to an "art movie" and watch their dick shrivel and fall off. Watch their face fall and their brain race as they devise excuses. They think it's going to be work, or boring. You may as well have asked them to mow your yard.
And yeah, sometimes they're right. But other times they're wrong. And in the place where they're most wrong is the place David Lynch calls home.
Blue Velvet was Lynch's fourth feature film and while it would be presumptuous for me to say that it encompasses all the ideas and images he's built up in his film career, it definitely makes a good approximation of it.
It's set in a fictional Pacific Northwest town called Lumberton, modeled on Lynch's own home of Spokane. College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns home from school to look after his father, who's recently had a heart attack. Jeffrey's a bright, good-looking, wholesome kid as played by Kyle Machlachlan, and he has an idyllic suburban home and a family who dote on him. It's a wonderful life.
Until, crossing a field on a walk home, he stumbles across a severed human ear. That ear, and Jeffrey's quest to solve the mystery of its owner, will lead him into a netherworld of sex and violence that he never knew existed.
Investigating the mystery of the ear, Jeffrey will meet a friendly but concerned police detective, the detective's beautiful and wholesome high-school age daughter (Laura Dern), an exotic and mysterious lounge singer (Isabella Rossellini), a transvestite drug dealer (Dean Stockwell), and, perhaps most memorably, Frank Booth, a psychotically dangerous criminal mastermind played with immortal gusto by the late Dennis Hopper.
Frank Booth is like Lynch's hometown version of the Joker - a wildly unpredictable psychopath who can swing from manic dancing to sobbing to brutal violence in a few seconds. He's a dynamo, barely standing still for a second - and on the rare occasions when he does stand still, we see his face twisting and contorting with agony, an animal caged in his own body. Everything he does in the movie is laced with violence: he's a drug dealer and a hit man, but he's also a sexual criminal, and the cruelties we see him inflict form the basis for most of the film's scandalous reputation.
Drawn into this netherworld first by his eager schoolboy curiosity and later by his fascination with Frank and what he represents, Jeffrey finds it hard to leave. He discovers things - things about his idyllic hometown and what goes on after dark, things about sex and what he might like to do during sex; scary things that he is certain he can never tell the pure and wholesome high school girl he's falling in love with.
When the movie came out, some critics were outraged. They thought it was trying to offend them - some snobby artist making fun of wholesome American suburbs by showing them as hidden dens of depravity. They thought the movie indulged in scenes of sexual violence and terror to titillate and exploit.
They didn't get that David Lynch is an Eagle Scout.
Watch this movie and tell me if it exploits anything, or insults anyone. This might be the most old-fashioned, moralistic movie you'll see all year. It's a movie about growing up, about leaving the nest and discovering all the pleasures and terror of the world - about gaining wisdom, becoming a man, and confronting evil.
Speaking of good and evil...
For every scary or violent thing in it, Lynch finds something to show us that is weird and beautiful. That's the other thing about the movie: if you're wondering why something is happening, why a particular scene is playing out the way it is, look at the screen. Look at what's happening with the light, or the fall of a gown on a beautiful actress's figure, or the way a camera angle makes a particular dancing girl seem silly and lonely and sad all at once.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-DjluKLY14
See, David Lynch isn't trying to rock your world, or convert your politics, or anything like that. All he wants is for you to look around and see the world for a few minutes. He doesn't have to invent the weird shit he shows us: it's all there, every day. Spooky cow skulls. Rich red drapes. Beautiful white fences and manicured lawns. Muscle cars. Gorgeous young girls and handsome young men. Wise and sad grown-ups. Evil and violent people and the lost souls they prey on. It's all right there, and it's all right here, too - and my bet is that if you'll indulge us and take this two-hour trip to Lumberton, USA, you'll find that the place you've really come is home.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
It is arguably the film that started the modern indie movement
80s indie movies were my favorite, because back then "indie" just meant "not made by a studio" instead of "has a certain tone and certain actors and certain bands." There wasn't any expectation about what an indie movie was supposed to be in terms of content and style. You'd have a hard time finding three modern indie flicks nearly as diverse as Blue Velvet, Repo Man, and Matewan are from each other.
He was, yeah. I've read discussions on the film that treat him like he's some sort of closet creep - like discovering an interest in moderately kinky sex is the absolute worst thing in the world. I think it's just the opposite, he comes out the movie more of a complete, wiser person but with that same scoutlike idealism and resourcefulness.
I kinda saw it as a metaphor for a small town boy encountering the depraved depths of the city to come out altered but still the same in many ways.
Cage is all his quizmodoesque creepster glory as a painkiller addicted corrupt cop in New Orleans
I just think you all should know that there's a movie out there called Dark Kumite, and you could watch it on instant watch if you were so inclined.
Which you shouldn't be.
So bad.
Hahaha.
I do want to read Frank Dux's "autobiography" sometime. Apparently it has first-hand anecdotes about being stalked through the streets of Hong Kong by dozens of ninjas.
the scene in frank's friends apartment blew my mind apart
and phenomenal use of music throughout
yeah, that whole scene with the song was just :shock:
The weird and creepy beauty of this song, the weird and creepy dude singing it, and then Frank off to the side chewing his lip and looking like he's either going to cry or kill someone. It rivets me every single time.
And I think Lynch is pretty great with music in general. Definitely the music was a huge part of the atmosphere and the appeal of Twin Peaks.
oh man
Send me a PM with your film choice.
Sent.
Yeah, Clark Gregg is a fantastic character actor who keeps turning up in the most random things.