Bo Burnham: Inside - One man, one room performance piece that captured the mood and atmosphere of the pandemic. Brutally honest, biting commentary on social media and Jeff Bezos. He writes and performs a bunch of songs, is deeply honest about the state of his mental health. If you're in a fragile place, this may comfort you or make you feel more upset with your situation. It helped a lot to watch with my wife. Great film. Will be shocked if it's not in my Top 10 this year.
I enjoyed this also and I had never seen any of Bo Burnham's act before watching this, so I had no idea what to expect. He does a song called "Welcome to the Internet" which to me is one of the best commentaries I've ever seen of how social media and the internet has royally messed with our brains.
The only thing I knew him from prior to this, was as the writer/director of Eighth Grade, which is an excellent movie in it's own right and I highly recommend it.
saw the contract on u tube last night. had bad ratings but was really good . typical bad guys chasing the good but done well with two top actors in it the whole way.
Paths Of Glory
Breaker Morant
Galipoli
The Thin Red Line
Kelly's Heroes
Casualties Of War
Black Hawk Down
The Train
Three Kings
Paisan
The Battle Of Algiers
Platoon
The Bridge On the River Kwai
Das Boot
The Big Red One
Grand Illusion
Apocalypse Now
Ran
Apocalypse Now by far for me (the original theatrical version). The journey from real to surreal is incredible. And no flag-waving, just showing what war does to people.
GF and I are going through a few 70s era movies. Three of the notables:
Coma, 1978, Michael Crichton
Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglass, Richard Widmark, Rip Torn, and Elizabeth Ashley in a tepid adaptation of the Robin Cook bestseller. A hospital is purposely putting young, healthy patients into comas to harvest their organs. It's interesting, but a good reminder why Crichton isn't considered much of a director. rental through Prime
The Deep, Peter Yates, 1977
I had a poster of The Deep on my wall when I was a teen - mostly because of Jaqueline Bisset's white, wet see-thru t-shirt.
Bisset and Nick Nolte are on a SCUBA vacation in Bermuda, and find some possible treasure and morphine on a wreck...they enlist Robert Shaw for help and are terrorized by drug dealer Lou Gossett Jr. Eli Wallach rounds out the cast.
Fun movie...I love treasure hunting movies, and this one has Spanish galleons, WWII ships, giant moray eels that crunch heads, and lots of explosions. Not to mention Hattian voodoo torture with chicken claws and blood. rental through Prime
Duck, You Sucker, Sergio Leone, 1971
Leone's little seen middle "Once Upon A Time" movie...sometimes called OUAT in Mexico or A Fistful of Dynamite. Rod Steiger chews the scenery as a Mexican bandito and James Coburn plays a rakish Irish terrorist, who team up to fight the Germans (?) in the early 1900s Mexican Revolution. This is a dirty, violent, movie with no real redeeming social value. I loved every minute of it. Lots of good violence. This is on Criterion Channel.
****
Also found a movie on Youtube that I've been trying to see since it was first released and I saw it in the theater.
Nadja, Michael Almereyda, 1994
Almereyda directs an eclectic cast in a modern day vampire movie. Peter Fonda plays a hippie dippy Van Helsing, Martin Donovan is his nephew, Suzy Amis his niece, and Galaxy Craze as Lucy. Jared Harris plays Dracula's son, who doesn't want to be a vampire and tries to suppress his desires, and the great, little seen Elina Löwensohn plays the title character, Nadja - Dracula's daughter, who falls in love with Lucy, the wife of Donovan's character.
This is a strange, gorgeous movie, of its time. My Bloody Valentine and Portishead saturate the soundtrack, the absolutely breathtakingly beautiful black & white cinematography is astounding and they even use the much loved-Fischer Price PXL2000 toy camera to show Nadja's POV. Stunning in every way. But it's not for everyone, as there is a deadpan humor running underneath. With Donovan and Elina Löwensohn in the cast, and David Lynch producing (he even has a cameo!), this is a strange, oddly endearing hybrid of a movie - Hal Hartley meets Lynch.
Riders of Justice Went in expecting an action packed revenge thriller but I got a dark comedy with 3 minutes of action instead. In this case, that was a good thing. I can’t imagine there are many better movies out than this. 8/10.