oh movies

THE KILL LIST, dir. Ben Wheatley, 2011

Tonight’s my sister’s birthday and we watched this after a great day, thanks to IFC. I’d describe it ineloquently as a naturalistic supernatural hit men drama. BW is a serious talent. Without the hoopla of $$ special effects or gratuitous gun battles, he tightens the wire of tension (domestic and homicidal). My recommendation is watch this with close captioning on. That way you won’t miss all the subtle and smartly written English mate dialog. My sis was worried about my black imagination when I called the dark and twisted ending. An indie film state of mind, I guess.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2011 was trouble. But these ten films helped to remind me why nothing beats a damn good movie. Two steps forward to 2012 for you & me. Let’s go.

The Tree of Life, dir. Terrence Malik

Attack the Block, dir. Joe Cornish

Drive, dir. Nicholas Winding Refn

Meek’s Cutoff, dir. Kelly Reichardt

Shame, dir. Steve McQueen

Warrior, dir. Gavin O’Connor

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2, dir. David Yates

The Kid with a Bike, dir. the Dardenne Bros.

Win Win, dir. Tom McCarthy

Beginners, dir. Mike Mills

Bonus: Cold Weather, dir. Aaron Katz (check him out)

What I want to see. Heard great things. Saw Ben Wheatley’s first pic, Down Terrace at Landmark Sunshine w/ M&C, knowing nothing about it. What starts as a Mike Leigh/Ken Loach-y understated working class family drama gets twisted quick - that’s what happens when a crime family bickers about disappointing sons, who is the snitch and who forgot to buy the milk. Kill List, don’t want to know any more…let’s go in together for the surprise.

(Source: thesearethemoviesiwatch)

from thesearethemoviesiwatch

What’s the best thing about this week? Friday = movie night.

But the truth is,” Fincher continues, “film is too expensive to teach. You can’t teach how to make Hollywood movies. What you can do is make people look at the language of cinema. Why do we need a close-up? I got a master, I got an over, I got close-up – what’s the best, what’s the most effective way to move people who are watching it, who don’t know what this person is or don’t know what the circumstances are; how do I engage them? And you can do that anywhere. You don’t have to go to London, you don’t have to go to Pinewood, you don’t have to go to SC. Creativity happens on the fringe. It does. It’s too bad. But you can get there. Start in the fringe, meet those people, write your scripts.

I always wanted to give a lecture at filmschools. You go in and you see all these fresh faces, and you say: ‘You! Stand up, tell me your story. Tell me what your film is going to be about.’ And they start, and you go: ‘Shut up and sit the fuck down!’ And if they do, you go: ‘You’re not ready.’ Because the film business is filled with shut-up and sit-the-fuck-down. You got to be able to tell your story in spite of sit-down and shut-the-fuck-up. If you are going to let something like that derail you, what hope do you have against transportation department? What hope do you have against development executives? - Fincher

What kind of movie do you watch with your dad on Thanksgiving?

Mr. Oh and I go for either the classic western (look at that polish poster art**) or its asian equivalent. This year it’s Takeshi Miike’s 13 Assassins...

**found on this super blog of vintage book design, 50watts.

(Source: 50watts.com)

Crimes and Misdemeanors

What life is about, why we are here, why it is so painful, relationships between a human being and his existence and human loneliness - that never gets resolved, and so it’s of constant interest to me. I’m cursed with the clown’s approach to it, so I have to approach it in a comic way. I wish I was born a gifted and great tragedian, but I wasn’t. - Woody Allen, on PBS American Masters

After I did my first scene, he said, ‘That wasn’t horrible.’ - Larry David on Woody Allen’s direction. So good!

“Why is life worth living?…”

Groucho Marx; Willie Mays; the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony; Louis Armstrong’s recording of Potato-head Blues; Swedish movies; Sentimental Education by Flaubert; Marlon Brando; Frank Sinatra; those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne; the crabs at Sam Wo’s; and, of course, Tracy’s face.

Love and Art. It’s personal, it’s subjective, it’s tricky.

Manhattan. “Boy. This is really a great city. It’s really a knock out.”

Friends (aka Storm Tharp and Patrick and Jon) with great taste have this poster in their homes, that says it all.

The greatest.

Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s first picture with dp, Gordon Willis. “And Gordy - who they used to call the ‘Prince of Darkness’ (from Godfather)…the first shot I ever did with Gordy was the Lobster scene.

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