#the coen brothers’ comedy is really good

[romanceyourdemons]

i absolutely adored the coen brothers’ miller’s crossing (1990). the period piece neo-noir is an entry in a trend of such films at the end of the twentieth century, and yet it distinguishes itself from those films through its narrative and tone. many contemporary films noir set in the 1930s, though ranging in tone from chinatown (1974) to dead again (1991) to who framed roger rabbit (1988), clone the narratives of dashiell hammett and raymond chandler in their densely layered and labyrinthine twists and turns. this choice is certainly appropriate for the genre they pay homage to, but it is not the choice the coen brothers make. this film’s cast is tightly woven and its plot is simple, almost minimalistic. rather than an ever-darkening whodunnit, the film’s overwhelming emphasis is on atmosphere and tone. the gorgeous cinematography and directing put huge emphasis on negative space. rooms are shown in longer shots than are typical for the 3/4 shot-dominated noir genre; silence drags out longer than the hollywood standard prefers; dialogues are far from evenly balanced, with one character contributing far more than the other in virtually every case. these attributes draw from the third man (1949) and the french new wave, and have the same effect: presenting silence, emptiness, heartlessness, and loneliness as vitally important to survival, and utterly incompatible with well-being. with spot-on performances from all actors and absolutely gorgeous visuals throughout, this film is an absolute treat to watch. although an entry in a crowded genre, miller’s crossing (1990) is one of my favorites, and i would highly recommend it

[thepunkranger]

Resident Evil Characters - A Summary

Note: This is entirely my own opinion and said with a heavy dose of humor

Please enjoy

Chris Redfield

OG

Started as a twunk

Became an angry gorilla man???

Alpha Male™️

Punches boulders

Wants you to marry his sister

Smoker

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife

Rude to wait staff

2/10 - Just a guy. Hit him with your car

-

Jill Valentine

Other OG

Arguably better main of RE1

Master of Unlocking

Bisexual Bob™️

Butch

Supercop

Once got mind-controlled into going blonde

Rocket Launcher babe

PTSD

Big Strap Energy

Giant anime gun

10/10

-

Albert Wesker

OG Baddy

Sunglasses

Thinks he’s cool

A little too into Chris

“What are we going to do this game, Albert?”

“What we do every game, Alex: try to take over the world”

Matrix jacket

Maybe a vampire?

Looks like my uncle (derogatory)

4/10

-

Barry Burton

Bear

A+ line delivery

Just happy to be a part of things

Wishes his daughter would talk to him

Comes through in a pinch

Got lost on his way to The Last of Us

Father figure

Not dead out of sheer dumb luck

8/10

-

Rebecca Chambers

Baby butch

Sees the best in everyone

Autism be damned, my girl can work a shotgun

Sporty

Mommy Domme/Babygirl switch vibes

Sweet coffee addict

Doing fine, thanks for asking

Awkward thumbs up

9/10

-

Billy Coen

Bad Boy™️

Never bothered to take off his handcuffs

Tattoos

Mullet???

Moral standards

Strong silent type

Whole situation could’ve been avoided by just talking about his issues but no

Queen fan

7/10

-

Leon S. Kennedy

If a golden retriever became a human and then got kicked every day of its life

Having a really bad first day

Into dominant women

Dumb 90s haircut

Uses comedy as a coping mechanism

Hair grows in direct correlation to his level of angst

“Hey demons, it’s me, ya boi”

Sexy

Dog lover

Certified Good Boy™️

Fucked up a perfectly good rookie is what you did. Look at it, it’s got depression

15/10

-

Claire Redfield

College student stuck in the zombie apocalypse

Soft butch

Humanitarian

Forced her brother to teach her how to knife fight

Really into motorcycles

Leather jacket

Rocket Launcher babe #2

Always has at least one adopted child with her

10/10 would ask to babysit

-

Ada Wong

Mommy. Sorry. Mommy- sorry. Mommy-

Grappling hook

Badass spy

Emotionally distant

Soft spot for cute cuddly things (Leon)

Femme fatale

Book lover

Chaotic neutral

Crossbow 😍

Could step on me and I’d say thank you

Rocket launcher babe #3

10/10

-

Sherry Birkin

Goosebumps protagonist

Worst parents ever tbh

Surprisingly good under pressure

Please someone get this girl some therapy

Supergirl

Smartest person here

One hell of a shot

The trauma is immeasurable

Somehow still doing fine

Loves her weird adopted family

8/10

-

Carlos Oliviera

Himbo

First POC main?

Went from three polygons and a white boy haircut in the original to actual gorgeous South American hunk in the remake

Lost his accent along the way for some reason

#1 Jill simp

If Dug from Up was a guy

Only trustworthy person in the whole series

Just wants to help

Gorgeous gorgeous hair

Loves strong women

Hakuna matata

Touch-starved

10/10 would peg

-

Steve Burnside

Twink

Who is this sassy lost child?

Hot Topic employee

Into Claire (she’s too old for you bud)

Choker

Thinks he’s edgy

Whiny

Daddy issues

1/10

-

Luis Serra Navaro

If Puss in Boots was a human

The Most Extra™️

Luscious flowing locks

Definitely into bondage

Used to work for Umbrella

Trying to make up for it

Don Quixote references

Bisexual

Good with his hands

Praying for a threesome with Leon and Ada

10/10

-

Ashley Graham

Basic white girl

Always getting kidnapped

Master of Unlocking #2

Razor flip phone

Ada Wong bisexual awakening (same)

Good with a wrecking ball

Makes Leon catch her every time she has to jump a ledge (also same)

Would like to go to Hot Topic, please

7/10

-

Sheva Alomar

Player 2

Second POC main

Bad AI

Too good for her game

Willing to go on a suicide mission with a guy she just met

Left handed

Deserves a better stylist

Only good part of RE5

Literally my girl got done so dirty just give her another chance please

10/5

-

Moira Burton

“It’s not a phase, dad!”

Probably gay

Weak arms

Skillz

Box dyed her hair at least once

Simple Plan playing in the background

Childhood trauma

7/10

-

Piers Nivans

Trying his best

Appreciates a good steak

Sick of Chris’ bullshit

Good with a rifle

Just a good man

German Shepherd boy

Self-sacrificing

8/10

-

Jake Muller

Wesker’s son

Daddy issues

Who invited Ronan Lynch here?

Quips for days

Bad boy

Loves the type of woman who can kick his ass

The Most Edgy™️

9/10

-

Ethan Winters

Husband of the year

Trusting

Surprisingly chill

The most basic white man in all of RE

Hands? What hands?

Functionally a lizard

Would still love you if you were a worm

Just casually knows how to craft bullets

Moldy

8/10

-

Mia Winters

Toxic girlfriend energy

Literally possessed

Dark sense of humor

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss

Casually working for a bioterrorism organization

Does actually care about her family

Definitely doesn’t have a penicillin allergy

If you can’t be the girl of his dreams, you can at least be the feral swamp witch of his nightmares

2/10

-

Zoe Baker

Lesbian

Mold intolerance

Southern accent thicker than grandma’s gravy

Picked last on the playground

Somehow okay despite her brother being Like That

Joe’s favorite

Science skills

8/10

-

Lucas Baker

Jigsaw

Didn’t even need the mold

Probably got at least one true crime documentary made about him

Working for Mia’s bioterrorism organization

Left his classmate rotting in the attic

Just the worst

0/10

-

Alcina Dimetrescu

Mommy

Please step on me

Elizabeth Bathory vibes

Just fucking huge

Can turn into a dragon

Lesbian

9/10

-

Karl Heisenberg

Grimy

Tumblr Sexyman

When robotics majors get weird

Fights with his siblings

Doesn’t actually care at all about Miranda

In cahoots with the lycans

7/10

-

Rosemary Winters

Mommy and Daddy issues

YA protagonist

Badass

Childhood trauma

Into the Mold-verse

Alternate universe Sherry Birkin

8/10

[lgbtpopcult]

What cool WLW projects do we know are coming in 2024?

Drive-Away Dolls

Arguably the most important representation of the year comes from a movie directed by one of the Coen brothers. Ethan Coen directs this wacky comedy that is very much in style for him.

Synopsis:

This comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage

A game had to be added to this list and here it is, the best one. From the creators who gave us Life is strange. Lost Records: Bloom and Rage tells the story of four friends who experience a transformative summer in 1995. After 27 years of no contact, Nora, Swann, Autumn, and Kat are reunited by fate and forced to confront the long-buried secret that made them agree to never speak again all those years ago. From the teaser alone it is obvious at least two of them dated.

Pluto

A Thai gl from GMMTV, known for its successful Thai dramas. The story is the telenovela cliche we've always wanted. Two girls in love. One gets in an accident and her twin takes her place to find out who was behind her accident, the other girl is blind. The twin has to fake being the real one so has to be in a relationship with the blind girl and of course falls in love with her. Match made in fanfic heaven.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

It was announced so long ago people are getting frustrated. However, with both a writer and a director now attached to the project, and the strikes over, we have every reason to believe we will finally get to see the hit novel, that centers the love story between two closeted Hollywood actresses, come to life. Whether you loved the novel or were indifferent and didn't see what the fuss was about, it is a very successful wlw romance and we want to see it on screen!

The Paying Guests

The director that brought us Carol adapting a book by the author of Fingersmith? Yes please!

Speaking to Indiewire, Haynes revealed he’s developing an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2014 novel The Paying Guests. “It’s a three-part limited series that would need to be a British production, but it’s a really great novel.” Set in post-WWI London, the drama is part lesbian love story and part murder mystery following a down-and-out widow and her daughter, the latter taking up a relationship with one of their lodgers. Waters also wrote Fingersmith, which was adapted into The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook.

NCIS Hawaii season 3

One of our favorite pairings of last year, Kate and Lucy are the main couple of their show and they carry it well. They look good together, have progress and evolution in their relationship and have fun working together.

The Secret of Us

Thai channel CH3 is expected to hit us strong with this Thai gl. CH3 is big in Thailand so this one is a big deal. The story is the typical exes meet again trope and it's magnificent. It centers Doctor Fahlada, nicknamed Doctor Angel. She is trying to hide the pain after being abandoned by the woman she loved. But then...by chance that woman comes back into her life.

Whisper Me a Love Song

Our resident anime entry has to be Whisper me a love song. Based on a manga it is the story of Himari Kino. On the first day of entering high school, Himari Kino "falls" for her senior, Yori Asanagi, whom she watched singing with a band at the welcome party for new students. When Himari confesses her admiration to Yori, Yori misinterprets Himari's feelings as romantic love. However, before Yori realizes, she comes to fall for Himari anyway, and promises to win her affections for real.

Bad Sisters season 2

Bad Sisters is one of the best reviewed and hilarious shows on this list. Coming back for a season 2 was inevitable. Bibi, the lesbian sister, will keep entertaining us in 2024.

Station 19 season 7

One of the most enduring shows and wlw couples on TV are coming back for a season 7! That is a lot of seasons but Maya and Carina do still have that spark.

About Galaxy The Series

Part of the gl renaissance that is expected to go full force next year, this series is already hugely popular among Asian romance fans.

Synopsis:

‘About Galaxy’ is based on author Zezeho’s yuri of the same name, with a Thai title of “มูลค่าดาวล้านดวง”. The story revolves around Hong Yok, a designer who has a big scar on her face which led her to hide away from the public due to her inferiority complex. But something changed in her life when she met Note, a woman she was measuring clothes, and realized she is the same person who gave her that huge scar! However, despite the incident, she doesn’t outright despise her, and instead… feels safe. What will happen to the two women?

My Ex-Friend's Wedding

Kay Cannon ("Blockers") will direct from a script co-written by Taylor Jenkins Reid? Staring a group of friends trying to stop their friend from getting married? And one of them is queer? We're all in!

Arcane (Season 2)

It seems like forever since we first watched Arcane but we're definitely looking forward to season 2. Needs no introduction.

Dream the Series

We already have enough Asian dramas in this list but we couldn't leave out one of the most anticipated gl, Dream. The story is that of a woman that sees a girl in her dreams every night only to meet her in real life. While in real life they are friends in her dreams they do much more. She thinks her friend doesn't know about that what she doesn't know is that she also remembers everything they do in their dreams.

Harley Quinn the Animated Series season 5

Another season of our favorite criminal duo Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy? Yes please and thank you. These two, and this particular iteration of them, might be the best representation American television has ever given us.

Chaser Game W

Chaser Game W is the first gl produced by TV Tokyo so it has a historic significance for the advancement of representation for queer women in Japan. First episode airs January 8. Based on manga series "Chaser Game" written by Hiroshi Matsuyama & illustrated by Yukitaro Matsuyama

The story:

synopsis: Itsuki has been working in the "Dynamic Dream" game company for five years and is now appointed as the lead for a big Japanese-Chinese collaboration project, which she is fully motivated to work on. However, it turns out the Chinese company team is led by her ex, Fuyu, whom she one-sidedly broke up with back in university! After breaking up with Fuyu, Itsuki never dated anyone else and chose to focus on her work, all while not coming out to her family and coworkers... But when her ex-girlfriend suddenly appeared in front of her, her feelings immediately started to sway. Meanwhile, Fuyu always resented Itsuki for breaking up with her without saying why. She takes charge of the project and pushes impossible tasks onto Itsuki. While Fuyu plots her revenge, Itsuki is rekindling her unrequited love. What will the outcome be for these two opposites?

Vigil season 2

The first couple of episodes of Vigil season 2 will technically be shown in December 2023 (in the UK only) but we'll basically be able to watch it beginning 2024 and we're looking forward to it!

Several upcoming TV shows and movies have cast actors that make it obvious they'll have lesbian and bi characters but until we know whether the representation will be enough to be worth watching we're holding off on making that other, more elaborate, list.

[gilligould]

what's barry about/what's the premise? everyone says it's really good and i believe it but i know pretty much nothing about what it is

on the surface, barry is a dark (and i mean dark) comedy about a disillusioned hitman who travels to los angeles for a job and finds himself drawn into the community theater scene. the potential to leave his violent past behind is appealing, but doing so is easier said than done. the show’s got it all—comedy, tragedy, absurdism… astounding action set pieces, to ill-fated romances, to simply stunning cinematography. it’s like if david lynch and the coen brothers came together to examine humanity’s capacity for change.

but it’s also a show about:

• living with the consequences of your actions.

• the effects of trauma.

• self-delusion and what it means to live a lie.

• abuse and abusive cycles.

• grief’s capacity to hollow out and compress.

• toxic codependency.

• our desensitization to violence.

• the sensationalization of tragedy.

• and perhaps most importantly,

how violence inevitably corrupts everything that it touches. even the innocents. even children.

it’s wonderfully executed and a rare example of auteurist television—this is bill hader’s vision and oh, what a vision it is. i absolutely recommend it, feel free to drop back in with your thoughts if you do decide to give it a go!

[pricklypear1997]

The Coen brothers reflect what I do like about the US. The wild western rustic charm/grit, the California weirdness, and Minnesota chill. These movies are extremely refreshing and don’t have any forced political agenda inserted unlike the majority of what Hollywood puts out. The Coen brothers stay true in their work and shows us these nuanced but beautiful aspects of the US. They’re really good at showing the viewer beautiful wide screen shots of nature as well as having these quiet moments that just let you digest the film, only to be baffled by the next scene! Their comedy is gold. I’m going to have watch every single movie directed by the Coen brothers. I’ve already seen True Grit, the Big Lebowski, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Fargo. These movies make you feel like your entering the lives of the characters they are about, but these characters feel like individuals living in their own little world. It doesn’t feel manufactured. They’re living in their own natural environment, and that’s beautiful.

Update: I’m adding O Brother Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man, Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men, and Burn After Reading on my list of favorite films (which is exactly 140 films so far), along with True Grit, and The Big Lebowski.

[01zfan]

OH that eunseok pic.. he looks too good to be real

now that you’ve mentioned actor!riize….. what movies do you think riize would star in??? personally i am a firm believer that sohee would be in a musical remake like The Greatest Showman or West Side Story (need to hear him sing, there’s just no other way!) and anton in a classic romcom that you’d watch ever year to feel something like 10 Things I Hate About You but as Cam pining after Bianca (as riize’s rep yearner and longing lover)! but what are your thoughts?!!

from, ⭐️

omgee i took your question way too serious and I spent an unrealistic time thinking about what movies i'd like to see riize in and what type of movies i think they'd like.

I honestly can’t see Shotaro in any movies. For some reason my mind goes to him as a child actor? I think it may be because the character reminds me of Shotaro but I see him in a role like Akira in Nobody Knows dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda (2004). Genuinely such a sad but beautiful movie I do NOT recommend for the faint of heart seriously. I could also see Shotaro in a movie with minimal talking, something that is heavily a vibes sort of movie. Like All About Lily Chou-Chou dir. Shunji Iwai (2001). Something that is really heavily focused on aesthetics and is stunning. Maybe something like Aftersun dir. Charlotte Wells (2022). I can just see Shotaro being in a really gorgeous movie honestly. Like the type where you forget what it was even about because it was so beautiful. Also, I can see Shotaro doing voice acting for movies! I think his pronunciation is crazy good and I could definitely see him voicing a very gentle and caring male character like Henry in The Secret World of Arrietty dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010).

I think Eunseok would really shine in movies that are very human. Like movies about the human condition, or very existential narratives about human life. For example Killer of Sheep dir. Charles Burnett (1978). This is a movie about the life of a slaughterhouse worker and how that seeps into his real life and other outside influences that effect his view on his place in the world. I can Eunseok in a movie that is very melancholic, something you watch once but you kinda always think about.  On the more happy side, I can see Eunseok in films people would describe as the “comfort movie”. Movies where nothing happens but a hard hitting and sometimes comforting message is conveyed nonetheless. On the happier spectrum of that movie is Perfect Days dir. Wim Wenders (2023). This is the life about a public toilet cleaner in Japan, nothing happens but it is a still a very beautiful and comforting movie nonetheless. I can see Eunseok really liking these types of movies as well because he has talked about how he thinks about the meaning of life and such. I think introspective films and ones that capture the mundanity and complex nature of human life would really pique his interest. Also Sweet Bean dir. Naomi Kawase (2015)!

Okay now Sungchan. I feel like everyone wants him to be a romcom king but I need this man to be in straight up comedy. Maybe I’m jaded but he’s funny as fuck to me IDGAF. I need him in something like Nice Guys or 3 Men and a Baby dir. Leonard Nimoy (1987). Something kind of outlandish it’s funny like O Brother, Where Art Thou? dir. Joel Coen (2000). I just think he has really good comedic timing and a comedy could really showcase that. But honestly, I see Sungchan more as a television actor. Something really dramatic I wanna see him in True Detective or X-Files. I’m actually opening my eyes to Sungchan in like a crime/mystery. I think something like Chaser dir. Na Hong-jin (2008) or Mother dir. Bong Joon-ho (2009) would be so insanely awesome. Seeing him as a serious detective would be such a change for him I think he’d devour it. A kdrama miniseries centered around crime Sungchan would absolutely devour. OF COURSE though I have to include the romcoms. Some of my personal favorite are 50 First Dates dir. Peter Segal (2004), 10 Things I Hate About You dir. Gil Junger (1999) and The Back-Up Plan dir. Alan Poul (2010). For some reason I can also see Sungchan in a movie where he suddenly ends up becoming a father figure. Makes me think of My Baby’s Daddy dir. Cheryl Dunye (2004) or Big Daddy dir. Dennis Dugan (1999). I literally don’t know why but I can see it clear as day.

I can see Wonbin being an indie movie KING. One of those actors that are rarely in anything that’s projected to be a major box office hit. Also I can see Wonbin being in really nonconventional roles! maybe I’m projecting because of this fic I’m writing but I can see him in films that would be challenging to him. After Yang dir. Kogonoda (2021) comes to mind. Beach Rats dir Eliza Hittman (2017) is a little on the crazier side but I can see Wonbin in a role like this as well. I can also see Wonbin being a part of a big ensemble cast! Like Shotaro I can see him being in a movie that is very heavy on the vibes of it all and maybe ends up being a cult classic? Something that comes to mind is Empire Records dir. Allan Moyle (1995). Or if it’s something a little more culty Hackers dir. Iain Softley (1995). Also something like Go dir. Doug Liman (1999) or Boogie Nights dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (1997). Go specifically is so Wonbin coded to me I don’t know what it is but I think he would shine in a movie like that. Wonbin has such a late 90’s film face I don’t know what it is but I actually need to see him in every single film ever made.

Sohee I’m going to be so honest with you. I can see him in like a very funny kind of off-beat comedy. Where something extremely ridiculous happens or like a movie you watch when you get high.  Dazed and Confused dir. Richard Linklater (1993) and Smiley Face dir. Gregg Araki (2007). Something about Sohee tells me he’d be alot of fun in movies like these, he has really good comedic timing and really funny reactions to things that makes me think he’d shine in a movie like these. I’m laughing just thinking about him in a situation like Smiley Face. I also believe him and Eunseok or Sungchan could team up for a hilarious movie like Dude Where’s My Car? dir. Danny Leiner (2001).  Similar to Wonbin, I can see Sohee in a movie with a kind of large ensemble cast. Something like Waiting… dir. Rob McKittrick (2005) or Friday dir. F. Gary Gray (1995). Something where he stars side by side with someone else, or he is just the funny side character that ends up involved in a situation. I need him to be in a movie like Superbad dir. Greg Mottola (2007) SO BADDD I think that’d be the funniest thing ever. To go with what you said, I could also see Sohee in a movie adaptation of a musical too! I think seeing him on Broadway or in a play would align more with his interests, but he’s too pretty to not be on the big screen. Sweet Charity dir. Bob Fosse (1969) comes to mind (I can’t decide whether he’d be Charity or Oscar). I think he’d shine in of course one of the more emotional musicals like Les Mis dir. Tom Hooper (2012).

Anton I can see him in period pieces from the 1970-1980’s. This is entirely because of his look from went riize went to Haus Nowhere. He looked fantastic in that two piece suit thingy so now I need to see him in a movie where he has to wear fashion of that nature. Something like Free Fire dir. Ben Wheatly (2016) or Nice Guys dir. Shane Black (2016). Genre wise I can see Anton in coming of age films. He’s talked about extensively graduating from being a baby to an adult so I think it’d be really fitting for him to be in a movie about growing up or the transition from one life stage to another. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (2015). This is one of my favorite movies of all time, one of the absolute best YA novel to movie adaptations and although it is sad it is so beautiful and I could totally see Anton in a movie like this! It does have a romance vibe to it as well so I could really see Anton in a coming of age movie with someone he falls in love with as a catalyst or a very important part of his life. I can also see Anton in a movie where it’s kind of a buddy movie? Like he stars in something with someone side by side with him. Something like Be Kind Rewind dir. Michel Gondry (2008) or Ghost World dir. Terry Zwigoff (2001). I don’t know why but I would absolutely love to see Anton in a movie where he’s growing with someone side by side or they end up completely apart. I guess like Eunseok I’d also like to see him in movies that are incredibly human. 

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#167)

(I've gone overboard again this week!)...

🍿  

'A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism...'

The Young Karl Marx is my second film by Haitian Raoul Peck (After his 4-part documentary about colonialism 'Exterminate all the Brutes'). An historical German biography about the birth of the labor movement, with lengthy discussions of the political theories of the time. It's so refreshing to experience an unapologetic look at the revolutionary ideology of class struggle, improving and uniting the impoverished workers and taking down the exploiting bourgeoisie. Vicky Krieps is lovely as Marx's sexy and supportive wife. 7/10.

🍿

Chan is missing, my 3rd by indie filmmaker Wayne Wang (After 'Smoke' and 'The Joy Luck Club'). Made for $20,000, this detective story was his solo directorial debut, and the first 'important' film about "ABC"s ('American Born Chinese') and other Asians living in Chinatown. I lived in San Francisco in the later 80s, and this brings back very fond memories to a long-forgotten time.

🍿

2 by Tricia Cooke:

🍿 Tricia Cooke is an editor, who worked on many of the Coen Brothers' films (together with "Roderick Jaynes"). She's also been married to Ethan Coen for 30 years (in an open, "non-traditional" marriage, according to Wikipedia).

Drive away dolls, the new comedy was written by her and husband Ethan, but without brother Joel. It's a "Lesbian road trip", in the raunchy tradition of 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' and 'Bad Girls Go to Hell'. Andie MacDowell's foxy daughter is a free-spirit just looking for uncommitted, good time, but eventually falls in love with her girlfriend Marian. The romantic scene when it finally happens plays well to Linda Ronstadt's Blue Bayou background (but then, anything would!). The first 10 minutes were a bit confusing, but once they started driving, it got funnier (especially with the UNG soccer team 'basement party', and the Big Lebowski-style dream sequence). With time, it will earn its higher place at the Coen cultish pantheon.

"Who are you?"... "Democrats"...

🍿 Eve, (2008) an unexpectedly poignant story, Natalie Portman's directorial debut. A young woman visit her very old grandmother Lauren Bacall, only to intrude on her romantic dinner with very old beau Ben Gazzara. With score by Sufjan Stevens. 7/10.

/ Female Director

🍿  

"...I'll see you in my dreams..."

First watch: First season of Twin Peaks. I've seen 4 of David Lynch's surreal films before ['Blue Velvet', 'The Elephant Man', 'Wild at Heart' and 'Mulholland Drive'] and none of these made me a fan. But I like to keep an open mind, so I gave this, his most popular work, a try. However, like many old classics you see for the first time many years after their production date, its charms were completely lost on me. I can see what a radical breakthrough it was for network television in 1990, but today it feels like the antics of a straight-forward Soap Opera with an added, pretentious 'quirk' to every move and character. The coffee fetishism, the dancing midgets and log ladies, the absurd police procedural, the eclectic twists and supernatural dreams. With every episode I hated it more. The mystery of who killed whom, or the obviousness of everybody sleeping with everybody else, were utterly uninteresting. I really wanted to like it, but after 6 arduous episodes, I had to just admit that it's not for me. 2/10.

But I always loved Angelo Badalamenti's theme, and I often listen to it on loop.

🍿  

"I feel so low that I could get on stilts and walk under a dachshund"

It (1927), my first silent film with the original 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl', Clara Bow. "It" being basically sex appeal. Pre-Code, sassy and cheesy. This version is 'Colorized'.

🍿  

"You notice things when you pay attention", and “We won’t be like them”.

Another frequent re-watch of my most cherished romance film, In the Mood for Love, with incomparable couple Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. Her sad beauty, in these exquisite high-collar Qipao, and unrequited longings, are etched on my heart. With 2 different musical themes, the famous 'Yumeji's waltz', and the Nat 'King' Cole Spanish Boleros: I want to find an analysis of when and why each one was used. The 3rd act was unbearably sad. And what is exactly the meaning of the Cambodian coda? 10/10. ♻️

🍿  

4 Winning and Nominated Shorts from Last Night's Oscars (plus 11 more):

🍿 The Last Repair Shop - deservedly - won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short this year. (Video Above). A quiet story about a shop that maintains and repairs the 80,000 musical instruments used by students of the Los Angeles school district. It's about mending broken things so they can be whole again, performed by people who were also broken, but are now whole.

Similar and even better than the 2017 Oscar nominee Joe's Violin. One of the best films I've seen so far this year! 10/10.

🍿 The previous short directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers was the wonderful A Concerto Is a Conversation, about jazz pianist Kris Bowers' relationship with his grandfather. Nominated in 2021. 9/10.

🍿 The Queen of Basketball was another Ben Proudfoot short which won an Oscar in 2021. Their trade in stock is a well-told emotional human interest angle. This one is about a black woman who was college basketball superstar in the 1970's. Heart-warming.

🍿 Proudfoot's 2021 Almost Famous: The First Report told the story of a Louisiana reporter who broke the story of the Catholic church sex abuse scandal, but who did it in the 1980's. He was too early, and eventually got a mention in 'Spotlight'.

🍿 War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko, a lovely alternate World War One animated short about two soldiers from the opposite sides playing long distance chess with the help of a carrier pigeon. Won this year’s animated short.

Also, Dave Mullins previous story, Lou (2017), another Oscar nominated Pixar pre-feature item. It's about an anthropomorphic Lost & Found Chest, at a school yard identical to the one Adora used to go to her first 6 years. 7/10 and better than many of the later Pixar shorts.

🍿 The ABCs of Book Banning was nominated in 2023, but did not win. It features intelligent kids of 7-15 questioning the mass removal of books from schools and libraries, mostly about race, women and LGBT topics. Knowledge is power and the American Nazis who ban books have their eyes on much bigger prizes.

/ Female Director

🍿Island in Between, another terrific nominee from this year, about the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen. Made by a Taiwanese filmmaker, who reflects on his family relationship to china, Taiwan and the USA. Got me to listen to the songs of Teresa Teng again.

🍿3 by Jay Rosenblatt: "What do you want to do when you grow up? What are you afraid of? What is power? What are dreams? What is most important to you?" Nominated for the 2022 Oscars, How Do You Measure a Year? hit me very hard. New father Jay Rosenblatt started recording his daughter on her 2nd birthday, asking her about her life, and continued doing it every birthday until she was 18. My Adora Project didn't end so positively. Another 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 10/10.

🍿 In Jay Rosenblatt's 1998 Human Remains, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco and Mao share details about their intimate lives, what they like to eat and drink, their sexual preferences and bowel movements, likes and dislikes. Personally banal.

🍿 When We Were Bullies, a third reenactment by documentarian Jay Rosebnblatt, about a personal incident from his elementary school days, when he and others bullied a classmate. It gives some unpleasant ‘This American life’ vibes, but ends tenderly with a simple “I’m sorry”.

🍿 The Elephant Whisperers won the 2022 Documentary short with 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. An Indian 'Animal Planet' style story about an indigenous couple, caretakers of baby elephants at a large national park and elephant reserve. I wish it was me.

A couple of hundred years ago, most of the world was the space where animals lived, tigers, elephants, birds, monkeys. Then humans killed them all and took their place.

/ Female Director

🍿 The girl and the tsunami is an Argentinian animation about a 12-year-old Chilean girl who saved her island community in the 2010 tsunami.

🍿 Snif & Snüf, a little geometrical animation, by a guy who worked on 'Bojack Horseman'. It's a similar concept to Břetislav Pojar's Czeck award-winning Balablok from 1972, where squares and circles fight to the death.

🍿  

Jim Jarmusch/Tom Waits/Rosie Perez X 2:

🍿 "Tasty Porcinis..."

Re-watch: The Dead Don't Die, his slow, absurdist apocalyptic comedy about flesh eatin' Coffee Zombies. Full of meta-connections and allusions to a cinematic universe: Sam Fuller, Cliff Robertson, Patterson, George Romero, and breaking the fourth wall ("Jim gave me the whole script!")

An ensemble piece with a special 'Thank you': 'Would anyone object if I gave credit to Atilla Yücer?' Such a Jarmusch thing to do! ♻️

🍿 Night on Earth (1991) is an anthology about 5 unrelated taxi drivers in 5 different cities, and the clients they pick on the same night. I found it irritating, and the rides in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Roma couldn't end fast enough. But the last story which took place in Helsinki, as the morning was about to break, was sad and powerful. Jarmusch was a friend of Aki Kaurismäki, and this influence might have helped.

🍿  

Craig Ferguson X 2:

🍿 “Congratulations, Mr. Stuart. You are tonight’s lucky Scotsman.”

Saving Grace, an well-written, well-played and funny stoner comedy, about middle aged widow Brenda Blethyn whose irresponsible husband left her in an enormous debt, forcing her to grow marijuana in her greenhouse along with her pot-loving gardener Craig Ferguson to avoid losing her large country house in Cornwall. 7/10.

🍿 I’ll be there (2003) was the only film Ferguson's wrote and directed (and rather competently). A sentimental but enjoyable story of an aging has-been rock star who discovers that brilliant teenage singer Charlotte Church is a daughter he didn't know he had. A different slant on my favorite theme from 'After the Wedding'. It ends with a perfect 'Happy End' when she sings 'Summertime' on a stage, whose lyrics sums up very nicely the whole movie.

🍿  

I watched Larry David's Clear history last week, but I felt like laughing at it again. David is such an unbearable asshole, but it was a solid comedy. Now I'm considering seeing 'The Fountainhead' with Gary Cooper, which is mentioned as part of the joke.♻️

🍿  

"Those aren't pillows!..."

After seeing again the "I want a fucking car" clip, a re-watch: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the classic Thanksgiving dramedy with the classic 'Odd couple' plot. ♻️

🍿  

René Laloux, who directed the amazing 'La Planète sauvage', followed it up with another psychedelic, experimental movie. Together with bandes dessinées artist Moebius, they did Time Masters in 1982. I had a very hard time with this worthless science fiction story. Except of a few sparks of visual poetry here and there, it was more like a terrible, boring 'Time Wasters'. 1/10.

🍿  

I watched the super-light French comedy My Best Friend's Girl from 1983, but only because it features a young Isabelle Huppert. She plays a sexy, promiscuous temptress, who seduces 2 best friends at a ski-resort, so much so, that they both go crazy over her. Nothing wrong with some frothy ménage à trois, as she was glamorously prancing in revealing negligees for most of the time, but this was terribly-written and unwatchably juvenile. 1/10.

At least, I discovered this recording of Nirvana's 'My best Friend's Girl'.

🍿  

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

“War is Over” Adora.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

YOU

Question 3 and 5 for the movie ask 👀

3.What is a film you absolutely despise and why?

Oh man I think The Lion King 2019 (and all those disney """live-action""" remakes in general). Some are more egregious than others but god like, just the staggering soulless, corporate, intellectually and emotionally lazy aura of them. They smell like bleach and plastic to me.

so many things to despise :D LIKE

the fact that so many extremely talented artists and workers in general whose creativity and talent and passion is being wasted on these things hurts my bones and crushes my soul

the fact that this thing is so blatantly a 'product' meant to be consumed once and then forgotten about

the no imagination or attemps at doing new and different things and when they are trying to do improvements or something new they show how they fundamentally don't understand what makes the originals work and what made them so beloved in the first placed

how manipulative it is, the unabashed exploitation of people's nostalgia and love of the original

the way a company plagiarizes itself like a greedy ouroboros

the way it wants to piggy-back off the hard work of the original while also wanting to replacing it

the way these things help perpetuate that 2d animation is old and outdated and for kids, while this new gritty no colour, no heart, no soul, no emotion, no sincerity, no vulnerability, no rawness, live action remake is much more mature and ´real´ and waaaaayyyyy better I mean who needs characters to act and emote when we can render all these fur textures…

It's just insulting to me and the entire human race overall

one of the only good things about it is YMS's review on it:

that and that their existence makes me appreciate the originals way more.

5. What is your favorite genre of film?

Aaaarghhhhh I don't know if I can choose, it's like choosing which one of your children is your favourite, it's evil to choose!

But here's some I'm genres I'm weak for: psychological horror, character studies, sci-fi, intimate small scale conflicts that are a microcosm of a larger more general and timeless conflict, dark comedy, historical periods!!!, fantasy and mythology, all sorts of animation but especially the crazy experimental ones (claymation and stop-motion for example), and just weird stuff in general

And I really like a film that can juggle polar opposite genres/emotions like a comedy/horror or comedy/tragedy in a way that enhances the whole thing and not subtract from it, it's one of the toughest things but oh that's the good shit right there when it's done right like:

A Field In England 2013

The Banshees of Inisherin 2022

Dogtooth 2009

Parasite 2019

or Coen Brothers' films

[mogwai-movie-house]

Beau Is Afraid (2023)

A new horror-comedy by the writer and director of Hereditary (2018), Beau Is Afraid is the epic odyssey of a mild-mannered man trying to get home to his mother's funeral as the world throws more and more hellish obstacles in his path.

It's basically Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind remade by Wes Anderson with a script by Franz Kafka. Or maybe Terry Gilliam directing Eraserhead. Or David Lynch in charge of The Truman Show. Or perhaps the Coen brothers adapting The Book of Job for the screen. It's a long and ever-more absurd nightmare, in other words, but it's also funny and tender, with a good amount of charm and a great deal of attention to detail, which helps it rise above the average indie-type flick.

At close to 3 hours it's unnecessarily long, and starts to flag around the halfway mark with all the theater troupe stuff. The lack of an ending that really resolves and makes believable and satisfying narrative sense of all the ridiculous nonsense that has preceded it keeps it from greatness, or even really-goodness, but it's continually and gruesomely hilarious the whole way through and I definitely liked a lot of it.

★★★★★★★✰✰✰

[juliaanoia]

So I watched Inside Man...

Oh god, why did I watch this? (David Tennant, that's why...).

This whole series could have been over in minutes if any of the characters acted like normal humans.

A plot that ridiculous and characters behaving that stupid...(”woosh woosh!”) Maybe the Coen Brothers would be able to pull this off, have it be an absurd, dark comedy and still have everything make sense somehow... But Moffat certainly couldn't and I often found myself laughing out loud at how stupid everything was.

 And such a waste, he had such a talented cast to work with, all the actors really did a fantastic job with the ludicrous lines they were given. With anything Moffat does I always feel like: Let him come up with crazy ideas and fun scenarios,he is good at that, but for god's sake, let someone else finish writing the story.

I got Midnight Mass flashbacks from this in the sense that I often thought “just make it ten times more absurd and rediculous and it would be so good!”

[pynkhues]

Roles or projects you want to see the succession cast take on next? And somewhat related but any career predictions for the main cast? I wonder if Succession will be the high point for a few of them or if some will go on to win Oscars...

I can't take credit for this one, but I saw someone comment somewhere that Jeremy should work with Ruben Östlund, and having finally watched Force Majeure last night, it's literally all I can think about. I'm not sure if it would be that much of stretch though really, as I think Östlund has a similar sense of humour to the Succession writers and explores similar themes of wealth, masculinity and toxic families, but the way he utilises nature to amplify tension feels like something new and I just think Jeremy would eat it up, haha.

I think his interests as an actor tend to skew towards drama, and I do suspect he has directors he wants to work with (his last three films being quite weighty / noteworthy directors in Guy Ritchie, Aaron Sorkin, and James Gray [albeit I thought they were all weaker offerings from all three directors unfortunately]). I'm not sure if I can see him flipping genre at all really, but he might for the right director in that sense. I would like to see him in something that maybe toes the line between drama and genre? I think he'd do well in a gothic period drama like The Little Stranger or The Others, or a magical realism thriller like Barton Fink. Ooo, actually, I think he'd be great in something by the Coen Brothers.

I'd also really love to see him in a Jane Campion movie. I think he'd really work in a moody, tense, romantic period drama like The Piano or Power of the Dog, and I think they'd work well together given Jane generally encourages immersion with the actors in a way that plays with method acting in the way Jeremy seems to.

On that note, I would love to see Sarah work with Jane Campion too, particularly in something like The Piano or my personal favourite, Bright Star. I think she's got such a good look for it and would eat up that sort of sweeping romance (I am forever bitter we didn't get her Persuasion with Joel Fry).

Really, I think Sarah can pretty much do anything and I do think she's more adventurous with genre than Jeremy is. She's already done high sci-fi (Predestination), quite a bit of horror (Jessebelle, Winchester), prestige drama, romcoms and even family films. I'm curious as to her new one about the rise of the beanie baby empire, but from the trailer it doesn't look like she's being given much to do, which is a bummer.

I'd love to see her in more lead roles, and I'd especially love to see her work with Jennifer Kent, who between The Babadook and The Nightingale has a real knack for sharp edged, damaged women on the edge. I think she'd be great in a David Fincher project too, something like Mindhunter or Gone Girl - - ooo, actually, I'd love to see her in an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places (I don't count the Charlize Theoron adaptation).

I guess that means I want to see her in crime? Haha, I do think her comic timing is underrated though too, and I think it could be fun to see her in more of that. Maybe a Wes Anderson style thing?

After watching Sorry to Bother You a few weeks ago, I was actually thinking about how good Kieran would be in a Boots Riley film. I think Kieran's energy naturally lends itself really well to absurdist comedy - a big part of why he could sell some of Succession's more unhinged moments, haha - and there are so many interesting directors operating in that space at the moment that I just think Kieran would sing with. Particularly the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Swiss Army Man), Yorgos Lanthimos, and Taika Waititi.

Oooo, actually, I think he'd be great in something by the Safdie Brothers too, something like Good Time or Uncut Gems. I didn't particularly like the latter, but I do think they're interesting directors, and I think they could do something with Kieran that really lets him show off his range again. I'm not sure if I can see Kieran really doing high drama any time soon (which is kinda funny given he has done it before), but it'd be great to see him in things that straddle genre-lines. Oh, actually, I think he could be great in something by Jordan Peele too.

Okay, this got suuuper long, so I might just leave it there, haha.

[1995lahaine]

ROBBIE AMELL i have thoughts about robbie amell. i have a stupid franchise reboot that lives in my head featuring robbie amell.

izzy. izzy you have STUMPED me with this one i've been scratching my whole head at it for 2 days cause im like. he can only sorta kinda act? he was. well im gonna say something embarrassing here right. he was fun in the duff!

anyways. i think he's a young james marsden in many ways to Me. so like. yeah put him in romcoms for a bit let the pretty boy show!!! but then at the same time if we want him to give Acting a go i think he's tried scifi and only done the really shitty fucking franchise stuff so i dont think scifi is gonna work for him. he should have been in hail caesar. FUCK ACTUALLY THAT'S AN AMAZING CALL. that's what we do with him! we get him a coen brothers project! i think one of their very western comedy type things could be really good for him. im not gonna pitch the actual film bc this is getting long now but think somewhere between burn after reading and hail caesar. not entirely absurd but a little bit Bigger than reality so that the fact that he's not a Thespian would a) be hidden and b) enhance the role somewhat. fuck im good. anyways tell me your franchise reboot NOW

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

MOTHERS, SONS, DAUGHTERS

Opening this weekend...

Evil Dead Rise--This fifth feature in the beloved horror series that began in 1981 moves most of the action out of the woods and into the city. An earthquake uncovers a copy of the "Book of the Dead" in the bowels of a decaying L.A. apartment building. Near the tome are a couple of vinyl records on which a priest has recorded the incantations necessary to invoke the evil spirits that re-animate dead bodies to torment the living. The kid who finds all this is an aspiring DJ, so he has turntables, so...

Through this laborious set-up, the lissome tattoo-artist single mother (Alyssa Sutherland) ends up possessed by a malevolent force. It's up to her guitar-tech sister (Lily Sullivan) to defend her nephew and two nieces. Gruesome mayhem ensues, hitting on the obligatory tropes of the series--grinning, leering, levitating corpses, oceanic amounts of gore, hurtling demonic POV, the repeated phrase "dead by dawn!"--as well as nods to Kubrick's The Shining and to Fargo.

I'm afraid I've run out of patience with this style of horror flick. Watching a woman's corpse terrorize and murder her children probably wouldn't be my idea of entertainment in any case, but here it's not only unpleasant but tedious. I've grown weary of films in which characters stand transfixed as something ghastly happens in front of them. After a while one begins to suspect that all the interminable gasping and whimpering and slowly backing away may not even really be about generating terror or heightening suspense, but rather about padding a thin script out to feature length.

Sam Raimi's original Evil Dead trilogy was not inconsequential cinema. The "shaky cam" techniques that Raimi and his cronies developed on those indies, out of economic necessity, were highly influential on the Coen Brothers and Barry Sonnenfeld and others. But beyond the realm of technical innovation, Raimi's movies, especially the marvelous Evil Dead II of 1987, had a low-tech vigor, a whimsical sense of macabre comedy and a guileless campfire-story gusto that, combined with the one-of-kind slapstick acting of star Bruce Campbell, made them classics.

Raimi and Campbell are listed as executive producers on Evil Dead Rise, but almost none of the twisted magic of their early work can be felt here. There's some elegance to the production design, and leading ladies Sutherland and Sullivan are stunning, Bukowski-style L.A. goddesses. There's a sweet line in which the youngest niece tells her aunt why she thinks she'll be a good mom someday. And the Hieronymus Bosch-like horror into which the demon's victims conglomerate themselves is a decent Raimi-ish idea, though the CGI renders it soulless.

I'm told that this film, directed by the Irish Lee Cronin, was originally slated to open on cable TV but got a theatrical release after test audiences took to it. So it may be that I've just aged out of this sort of thing, and the movie will truly please audiences. If so, even though it's not for me, I nonetheless find it cheering that people still want to scream in company.

Somewhere in Queens--Less than a month after opening the Phoenix Film Festival, Ray Romano's feature directorial debut opens theatrically here in the Valley. Romano, who co-wrote the script, also stars as Leo Russo, a bedraggled hangdog sad sack who works for his family's contracting business in the title borough. Leo isn't the favorite son, however. His father (Tony LoBianco) shows more respect to Leo's slick brother Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco). Maybe everybody loves Raymond, but nobody loves Leo.

Well, that's not true. His siblings and his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) love him well enough, but they don't take him seriously, or listen to him. A sultry widower (Jennifer Esposito) on a jobsite seems to take a shine to him, but he's not the adulterous type.  Leo does have a source of pride, however: his quiet son "Sticks" (Jacob Ward) is a high school basketball star. One night at a big game, Leo and Angela are surprised to learn that Sticks has a girlfriend (Sadie Stanley) they didn't know about. The same night, they learn that he may be good enough for a college scholarship.

Though it's often funny, a forlorn atmosphere hangs over the early scenes of this movie that had me bracing for some sort of wretched tragedy that would leave the characters standing around emergency rooms or something like that. But the story, though it stings, doesn't drag us through the mud; it takes off in unexpected and painful yet believable and sometimes exhilarating directions.

The feel for the setting is convincing, and so is the large cast. The ensemble scenes are well-executed, especially the girlfriend's debut at a big family dinner, where she both irks and impresses the relations with her nerviness. Romano plays Leo as a toned-down version of his stage and sitcom persona, cowed and slow-witted, and his tentative, apologetic boyishness is poignant, even when you can see how his family could find it irritating.

For a while it seems like the film is underutilizing the mighty Metcalf, but finally Angela gets her big moment. Romano lets her articulate the theme of the movie, admitting probably the most frequent emotion of the parenting experience: Fear.

Also opening this weekend, at Harkins Chandler Fashion 20 and Harkins Arrowhead, is Tom Huang's fine comedy-drama Dealing with Dad...

It's slated to play at Harkins Shea and at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Sedona starting April 28.

I reviewed it last year, after it made the rounds of several festivals including Phoenix Film Festival. It's very much worth checking out.

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Rated R for pervasive strong language, drug content, sexuality and brief violence

Score: 5 out of 5

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-big-lebowski-1998.html>

The fact that The Big Lebowski isn't the defining film of Joel and Ethan Coen's careers speaks less to its own quality and more to the remarkably high bar the sibling team of writers and directors have set for themselves before and since. Despite being a box-office dud in its day, its unique blend of a crime caper, a noir mystery, a slacker comedy, and all manner of other influences both cinematic and psychedelic quickly helped it find its audience and build an enduring following on home video, quoted in fraternity houses and analyzed in philosophy 101. It tells the kind of story that the Coen Brothers specialize in, smart comedy about really stupid people who get into something way over their heads that turns out to be a lot simpler and dumber than it seems, taking classic film noir tropes and turning them upside-down. All of it is elevated by an all-star, larger-than-life cast of actors giving instantly memorable performances, crafting a world of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people that feels lived-in and authentic even as everything goes increasingly crazy. It's the kind of mystery where the protagonist figures everything out about thirty minutes in, instead being more interested in exploring the lives of its distinctive characters. Either way, it's a trip.

Set in the early '90s against the backdrop of the Gulf War, the film opens with a pot-smoking, middle-aged slacker named Jeffrey Lebowski, who prefers to go by simply "The Dude", getting his home raided one day by a pair of crooks on the orders of a porn producer named Jackie Treehorn, who beat him up and soil his nice rug. As it turns out, they got him mixed up with another Jeffrey Lebowski, the "Big" one, a millionaire philanthropist whose sexy trophy wife Bunny owes a ton of money to Jackie. The Dude, wanting some compensation for his ruined rug, heads to the Big Lebowski's house, which gets him and his bowling buddies, the hot-tempered Vietnam veteran Walter and the oblivious Donny, sucked into a bizarre tale that involves kidnapping, German nihilists, Jeffrey's artist daughter Maude, a punk kid from the suburbs named Larry, and more, all while an old cowboy who's seemingly wandered in from a Western narrates the tale.

This is not really the easiest movie to describe, in no small part because, like any good mystery or comedy, describing what happens ruins most of the fun. Like I said, it's a Coen Brothers movie, and the main appeal here isn't really the central mystery to start with. No, this is a hangout movie centered on The Dude, Walter, and Donny, a group of friends whose ordinary lives are thrown into disarray by unforeseen circumstances and then go even more askew thanks to their own blunders and stupidity. The central character, The Dude, is a guy who looks at first glance like he's the biggest idiot in the film. He's an aging hippie who took part in protests back in the '60s and has drifted through life ever since doing odd jobs in a world that's left him behind, as the Big Lebowski rather bluntly informs him the first time they meet. ("Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!") And yet, he's also the guy who manages to correctly guess what's really going on thirty minutes into the movie, and the only reason why it takes so long for him to do anything is because, well, just look at him. He's lazy, and even if he weren't, he doesn't really care either way, except for the fact that he's being pulled around by the people around him. The Dude may just be the most clear-eyed character in the entire movie, a guy whose philosophy of life is to let nothing get to him and just brush off what others have to say. It may have turned him into a layabout who's doing nothing with his life, but at the very least, he's happy and doesn't seem to be overburdened with problems in his life. It's no wonder that Julianne Moore's Maude Lebowski, arguably the only other character in the movie who seems to have her head on straight (and even she's a rather eccentric, smugly superior asshole), takes her own weird sort of liking to this guy, or that fans of the film have turned "Dudeism" into an actual spiritual code.

Everybody else, meanwhile, is going through life like they're in a completely different sort of movie, and most of the fun comes from watching them butt heads with one another. John Goodman's Walter, the hothead who can't stop going on about the war, is a Vietvet out of a prestige drama about a guy trying and failing to adjust to civilian life (though if you take the original screenplay as canon, it may just be stolen valor coming from a man with a few screws loose), one who winds up causing more problems than he solves. Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, Flea, and Aimee Mann play a group of German nihilists who act like the hip, quirky protagonists of a contemporary Quentin Tarantino crime thriller as they try to exploit the situation, and simply make things worse for everybody. John Turturro's rival bowler The Jesus is the villain of a sports movie. Tara Reid's Bunny is someone lifted straight out a '70s porno who's directly responsible for the entire mess (noticing a trend here?). The only characters in the movie who aren't stupid are those who've either been dragged into it or, like Sam Elliott's mysterious narrator, are simply observing it all from afar, and yet, this is not a stupid movie. Rather, these characters, each brought to life by an amazing all-star cast, are stupid in their own unique ways, the jokes coming from how their unique brands of stupidity interact and form all manner of unique cocktails of mayhem. It's a movie where everything is constantly flying off the rails because none of these idiots know what they're doing, and just like The Dude, you're just along for the ride of a lifetime.

The Bottom Line

This is just, like, my opinion, man, but The Big Lebowski deserves its reputation as one of the greatest crime movies of a decade that had no shortage of them, a twisted tale of a bunch of idiots falling into a larger-than-life yet all-too-real maelstrom. See it, learn to quote it, and abide.

[imsoglitter]

I'm doing a personal challenge where I'm trying to watch every nic cage film in chronological order. In the last year I've seen 83 of his films, and let me tell you, the man can act. I'm not saying he doesn't phone it in occasionally, but he's incredibly talented, especially when he's passionate about the character he's playing. (And honestly he phones it in a lot less frequently than you'd expect).

I think the reason people assume he can't act is because A) they're aware that he's put out a lot of bad movies (like, a LOT of them) and B) they don't know that he has a fundamentally different acting style than the majority of actors these days. What Hollywood wants these days (and what its leaned towards since about the 60s) is a very realistic style of acting. They want actors who react to situations in the way the average person might. Cage's style is more operatic than that. Think silent movies. If you've watched any of Cage's freak out compilations, you've seen examples of this. Cage has a style that projects, like a stage actor, but in a way that genuinely feels tailored to film. What really made this click for me were his later scenes in Vampire's Kiss (1988). His imitation of Max Shreck's movements is both chilling and impressive in how effective they would be if the film were silent.

Obviously this works better when working with certain directors and with certain projects. Of course he's going to come across better in a more fantastical comedy movie directed by the Coen Brothers (Raising Arizona (1987)) than in a direct-to-video straight action movie that wants him to be a straight action man (too many to list). But that's hardly unique to Cage. There are plenty of good actors that have phoned it in for the paycheck (*cough* Hugh Grant *cough*); Cage is in good company.

All this to say, you don't have to like Nic Cage, but he is a good actor.

(Also everyone should watch Birdy (1984) and I'm not joking. This movie fucking destroyed me. I've rewatched it like four times in the last year and I NEED someone else to be insane about it who isn't me or a roommate)

Hey, here is some new frustrating discourse.

I'm going to clear this up super duper quick.

And then we can move on and discuss more important things.

Okay?

Here goes...

Nicolas Cage is an incredible actor who is very bad with money so he has to act in terrible movies because otherwise they will repossess his dinosaur skull collection.

But even when he is in terrible movies with terrible writing he refuses to phone in his performances. And sometimes when you are acting your ass off while saying some of the dumbest dialogue ever conceived it can give the appearance the acting is the issue rather than the writing and story.

Hayden Christensen knows that feeling all too well.

So next time you see Nic Cage in a B movie acting a fool, just know he probably bought some new shrunken heads and forgot to pay the mortgage on his volcano island.

[theharpermovieblog]

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I re-watched The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Nothing in my life has been more influential than my crush on Jennifer Jason Leigh in this movie. Lol.

After the president of Hudsucker Industries commits suicide, the board fills his position with a perceived imbecile, in a scheme to lower the company's stock price.

Ah, the Coen Brothers. Filmmaking geniuses. Gods of the artcraft. We know em, we love em. But, did you know they were friends with "Evil Dead" director Sam Raimi? Did you know they worked with Raimi on a couple films? Did you know they wrote this film with Sam Raimi? If you're a film nerd, you should.

Written by the Coens and Sam Raimi. Directed by the Coens. Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Durning, Bruce Campbell, John Mahoney, and....PAUL NEWMAN! This film is a talent buffet. A bevy of likeable actors. Genius level dudes behind the lens. Even if you don't like this movie, you have to admit, it's pretty impressive.

So, how does it stack up? Well, in the Coen's catalogue it ranks a little low for me. Which l, to be clear, isn't an insult to the film, seeing as the Coen's filmography is amazing. It's just....not their best. Some jokes don't land, some moments feel lackluster and some could argue it's a little muddy in its story and pacing.

However, "The Hudsucker Proxy" is a solid and enjoyable film. It's more lighthearted feeling than most Coen comedies, but it retains their quirkiness and habits of meticulous directing and editing. It's got an underdog vibe that sells it well. It has gorgeous visuals and really makes you feel good when all is said and done. But, most of all, it's a beautiful homage to old time Hollywood films.

Whether it be a classic style of presenting romance, the fast talking dialogue, the touches of scene construction, the music, the "It's a wonderful life"-esque ending. It is all one big and beautiful silver-screen classic filtered through the minds of the Coens. What they did with Noir and "Miller's Crossing" they do here with 40's and 50's romantic comedy.

It's not the best Coen Brother's movie, but it's still a Coen Brother's movie, which really does a great job of making you feel good without getting too sappy.