At the movies - From the couch

I like Tom Hanks too.

4 Likes

George Clooney is great in a number of Coen Brothers.

Jennifer Lawrence is always great.

These three peckerheads are incontinent bassoons.

2 Likes

George Clooney doesn’t even have to be a good actor, he’s so dreamy. But I don’t mind him or JLaw whatever her name is.

Watching Whiplash again. One of those movies you can watch again and again. JK Simmons is awesome, so much of a ■■■■ it’s almost beautiful.

5 Likes

I saw Babyteeth today.
It’s quite good. Might be a bit slow for some.
Mendehlson I thought was terrific, in fact most of the cast is.
The young male actor must have been terrific too, because I wanted to punch him for the entirety of the movie.

1 Like

Watched Waiting for the Barbarians…Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson.

I don’t know what to say about it except that it was strange.

I really enjoyed it. Film about blaxploitation film getting made which itself contains elements of blaxploitation. It’s deliberately over the top but also quite subtle, very clever and sweet.

1 Like

Which for the uneducated is the title of the upcoming Coen Bros Clooney vehicle

2 Likes

Didn’t know a bassoon could be incontinent. Has something to do with the reed leaking spittle I guess?? :thinking:

1 Like

l watched it again last week, with my brother-in-law who hadn’t seen it before. It is just as impressive the second time around. The best WW1 movie l have seen.

2 Likes

I usually want to punch Mendelsohn for the entirety of the movie or series, and then for an hour afterwards.

He was loathsome in Bloodline and his family were far too patient with him.

I’d get told off if I called them incompetent buffoons, so I didn’t…I just thought it. They’re my barometer for TV or movies…if they like, I know I won’t.

Insouciant baboons?

I thought The Descendants was pretty good for a Clooney flick.

1 Like

I watched Blood Simple last night on Mubi, the Coen brother’s first film, made in 1984. For those who don’t know it, it’s been described as Texas noir; a thriller set in Texas with Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty, a bar owner, a very young and beautiful Frances McDormand as his wandering wife, John Getz as Ray, who works in the bar and has a fling with Frances McDormand, and Emmet Walsh as a private detective hired by Marty to kill his wife and Ray.

It’s compelling to watch, beautifully shot and lit, very atmospheric, but I just can’t like the Coen brothers. Their films are too self-consciously arty for me. There are some actors like that, Charlotte Rampling being a prime example. They do everything right, but you can’t help being conscious as you watch them that they’re actors playing a part: there’s Charlotte Rampling brilliantly portraying a grieving woman; there’s Charlotte Rampling brilliantly portraying a woman infatuated with her lover. Kenneth Branagh is another. For me, that’s what the Coen Brothers’ pictures are like. There’s a scene in a bar that the Coen brothers have brilliantly lit with a neon light giving that whole area a blue tinge; there’s a room that the Coen brothers have brilliantly arranged with shadows on one wall from a venetian blind on the other side of the room. It sets my teeth on edge.

Their films also glory in extreme violence. They’re far from the worst, I know, but much of the gore is unnecessary.

I have to give it 8, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

1 Like

I don’t like all the Coen Brothers movies, e.g. Barton Fink and in particular Inside Llewyn Jones which failed to engage any interest.

Blood Simple is as impressive a movie making debut as any l have seen. The lighting as you said is quite atmospheric, and the tension it provides is palpable. I also found the film to be deliberately claustrophobic, which again added to the atmosphere. Emmet Walsh steals the movie with a superb performance, he makes an outstanding sleaze bag. l gave it a 9/10.

Blood Simple was based on that murder that Truman Capote wrote of. In Cold Blood.

The Coens are like Kubrick…some great films, some utter tosh.

Are you sure it was based on those murders? They were committed by two petty crooks who had met in gaol, where they had heard of a supposedly rich farmer in the midwest, and they murdered him and his whole family. That’s nothing like Blood Simple.

No…I’m not sure, but I thought I’d heard there was a connection.

Watched Monster’s Ball tonight. I cant make up my mind. Superb performances by Berry, Thonton and Ledger (for the half hour he is in it) , but dunno, just found the actual story a bit rough around the edges. It seems a bit contrived and not overly subtle thematically.